Velocity Cointime-Adjusted
Transfer volume divided by the cointime-active supply. Weights velocity by the live fraction of coins, filtering out dormant supply noise from the monetary velocity reading.
What is it?
Bitcoin economic velocity adjusted to exclude the dormant supply share. Formula: V_CT = Transfer Volume / (Supply × Liveliness). The denominator (Supply × Liveliness) represents the economically-active supply share (Coindays Destroyed relative to total); relating transferred volume to this share yields a velocity focused on moving coins, undiluted by the dormant base. Unlike classic velocity which divides by total supply, the cointime version captures the effectively-liquid subset's dynamics.
How to read
Simple line on linear scale. High velocity: active supply rotates fast (distribution or intense commercial activity regime). Low velocity: active supply itself rotates slowly (deep accumulation regime, even within the liquid subset). Long-term structure is typically decreasing as the dormant share grows and mature holders remove their coins from active market.
Key zones
No absolute thresholds - cointime velocity is read by relative comparison to its own history. Peaks above historical moving average: intense activity phases. Troughs below: accumulation consolidation phases. Long-term slope reversals are rare and mark major structural changes in network usage regime.
What to observe
Compare with classic (unadjusted) velocity to identify informative gaps: when classic velocity drops sharply while cointime stays stable, the apparent drop comes mainly from growing dormant accumulation, not from active-subset slowdown. Conversely, cointime velocity plunging while classic stays stable indicates even liquid supply is slowing - late-bear configuration.
Historical context
Cointime velocity is computable since Transfer Volume, Supply, and Liveliness components are simultaneously measurable (approximately post-2013). Major adoption-expansion phases (2017 ICO era, 2020-2021 DeFi era, 2024 ETF era) imprinted cointime-velocity peaks, contrasting with consolidation phases where the metric returned to low levels.
Expert notes
The formula assumes a consistent Transfer Volume definition excluding internal transactions (change outputs, wallet consolidation). Modern pipelines apply this filtering by default but reading quality depends directly on the upstream filter's rigor. Cointime velocity is Performance-tier due to its cointime-decomposition requirement - it assumes Liveliness is computed with precision, requiring dedicated cointime pipelines.
Common mistakes to avoid
High cointime velocity does not necessarily mean inflation or depreciation - Bitcoin is not a currency subject to classical Fisher equation. Velocity in this context measures liquid-subset usage intensity, not monetary circulation speed in classical macroeconomic sense. Do not directly apply fiat macroeconomic models without adaptation - Bitcoin has specificities (capped supply, absence of central bank) altering classical reading.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/onchain/velocity-cointime-adjusted/history?days=90' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "velocity-cointime-adjusted",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: performance. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
Related metrics
Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.