Information is the foundation of good decision-making.
Cryptocurrency innovates at the speed of light.
New protocols are constantly coming to market, promising to solve some of mankind's greatest financial troubles. While their intentions might be good, the result is a cluttered, noisy environment that promotes FOMO & makes it nearly impossible to make sound decisions.
In order to succeed in the wild, volatile, & often opaque world of cryptocurrency it is necessary to quiet the noise & hone in on real signals. The best way to do that is by building out your own Crypto ToolKit.
Quick Notes on building a Crypto ToolKit:
-) Do not use every single tool (unless you’re a crypto savant)
-) Review each resource/tool individually (5–10 min per resource)
-) Select only the one’s that appeal most to your specific preferences
As you might already be aware, the crypto-verse is highly fragmented in the sense that there are many different chains & protocols. Given that not all chains & protocols are interoperable (yet), all of the tools listed provided below are will be as general & multi-purpose as possible.
Without further ado, Let's dive in:
📊 Market Data 📊
The starting point of almost every person’s crypto journey, Market Data providers are listing sites that aggregate all open financial digital asset data. All of the fundamental economic elements, Price, Volume, Circulating supply, Orderbooks, market dominance, historic data, & everything else.
1) Token Terminal - https://tokenterminal.com/
2) Messari - https://messari.io/
3) Crypto Slate - https://cryptoslate.com/coins/
4) CoinGlass - https://www.coinglass.com/
5) Coin Market Cap - https://coinmarketcap.com/
6) Coin Gecko - https://www.coingecko.com/
7) Coin Metrics - https://coinmetrics.io/
8) Coinlib - https://coinlib.io/
9) Crypto Compare - https://www.cryptocompare.com/
10) CoinCap - https://coincap.io/
11) CoinRanking - https://coinranking.com/
12) Coin360 — https://coin360.com/
13) Bitgur — https://bitgur.com/
14) Nomics — https://nomics.com/
15) CryptoWatch - https://cryptowat.ch/
16) BraveNewCoin — https://bravenewcoin.com/
17) LiveCoinWatch — https://www.livecoinwatch.com/
18) MultiCoinCharts - https://www.multicoincharts.com/home/
19) Nansen - https://www.nansen.ai/
20) CoinPaprika - https://coinpaprika.com/
21) CoinAlpha - https://coinalpha.app/
22) CoinScope - https://www.coinscope.co/
23) DropsTabs - https://dropstab.com/
24) CryptoView - https://www.cryptoview.com/
25) CoinCarp - https://www.coincarp.com/
26) Mytokencap - https://www.mytokencap.com/
27) CoinCodex — https://coincodex.com/
28) CoinLobster — https://coinlobster.com/
💱 DEFI Dashboard & Aggregators💱
Decentralized finance is an incredibly broad term that includes a wide range of applications that vary based on functionality & intended purpose. While the majority of current DEFI activity happens across 4 blockchains (Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon & Solana) there are so many up & coming alternative platforms such as Optimism & Arbitrum that have been garnering attention that for the sake of brevity I will only list the few products that I am personally familiar with.
1) Dapp Radar — https://dappradar.com/defi
2) DEFI Llama — https://defillama.com/
3) DEFI Prime — https://defiprime.com/
4) DEFI Pulse — https://www.defipulse.com/
5) YieldWatch - https://www.yieldwatch.net/
6) ZapperFI - https://zapper.xyz/
7) Zerion - https://zerion.io/
8) InstaDapp - https://instadapp.io/
9) Frontier - https://www.frontier.xyz/
10) Apebored - https://apeboard.finance/
11) Debank - https://debank.com/
12) APYvision - https://app.apy.vision/
13) Plasma Finance - https://plasma.finance/
14) Farm Army - https://farm.army/
15) DEFISaver - https://defisaver.com/
16) Gnosis Safe - https://gnosis-safe.io/
17) DefiYield - https://defiyield.app/
18) Coin98 - https://coin98.com/
19) AstroTools - https://astrotools.io/
20) MultiFarm - https://www.multifarm.fi/
21) OctoFi - https://octo.fi/
22) Parallel - https://parallel.fi/
23) Exponential - https://exponential.fi/
24) WalletDefi - https://walletdefi.app/
25) DEFImarketCap - https://defimarketcap.io/
26) QuantifyCrypto - https://quantifycrypto.com/
📰 News 📰
Crypto is becoming all the more politicized as time goes on. An absurd amount of crypto/DEFI news sites pop up constantly & push their own agendas. The best way to source news (in any industry) is by having a few reliable individual outlets & cross-referencing information across them all.
1) CoinDesk - https://www.coindesk.com/
2) Coin Telegraph - https://cointelegraph.com/
3) Bitcoin Magazine - https://bitcoinmagazine.com/
4) The Cryptonomist - https://en.cryptonomist.ch/
5) Be In Crypto - https://beincrypto.com/
6) CoinGape - https://coingape.com/
7) CryptoSlate - https://cryptoslate.com/
8) Crypto Briefing - https://cryptobriefing.com/
9) CryptoDaily - https://cryptodaily.co.uk/
10) Crypto Potato - https://cryptopotato.com/
11) BraveNewCoin - https://bravenewcoin.com/
12) Coin Journal - https://coinjournal.net/
13) Coin Speaker - https://www.coinspeaker.com/
14) CoinCu - https://news.coincu.com/
15) Bitcoinist - https://bitcoinist.com/
16) CryptoPanic - https://cryptopanic.com/
17) Crypto News - https://cryptonews.com/
18) U Today - https://u.today/
19) CoinGraph - https://www.coingraph.news/
20) Decrypt - https://decrypt.co/
21) Blockworks - https://blockworks.co/
22) CryptoCapitalNews - https://cryptocapitalnews.com/
23) Protos—https://protos.com/
👛 Wallets 👛
Wallets are the foundation for getting involved & staying in crypto. Wallets are exactly what they sound like, places to securely store/view your crypto asset holdings. Wallets typically come in 2 flavors, Chain-specific & Chain-agnostic. Chain-specific wallets are tied to a single blockchain platform (i.e ETH/BNB). These will only be able to store their native chain tokens, but allow the users to interact with on-chain assets/applications. Whereas chain-agnostic wallets might allow their users to store crypto assets from any blockchain, but that is the limit of their capabilities as they are usually single-purpose only (storage)
1) MetaMask - https://metamask.io/
2) MEW - https://www.myetherwallet.com/
3) Dynamic - https://www.dynamic.xyz/
4) XDEFI - https://www.xdefi.io/
5) Enkryptic - https://www.enkrypt.com/
6) Argent - https://www.argent.xyz/
7) Dopamine - https://dopamineapp.com/
8) TrustWallet - https://trustwallet.com/
9) Eidoo - https://eidoo.app/
10) Dapppocket - https://www.dapppocket.io/
11) Atomic Wallet - https://atomicwallet.io/
12) Bread Wallet - https://brd.com/
13) Guarda - https://guarda.com/
14) Exodus - https://www.exodus.com/
15) ZenGo - https://zengo.com/
16) Coinomi - https://www.coinomi.com/en/
17) Luno - https://www.luno.com/en-US
18) Ambire - https://www.ambire.com/
19) Jaxx - https://jaxx.io/
20) Edge - https://edge.app/
21) Freewallet - https://freewallet.org/
22) Coinbase Wallet - https://www.coinbase.com/wallet
23) Coin Wallet - https://coin.space/
24) Ballet Wallet - https://www.ballet.com/coins/
25) Unstoppable - https://unstoppable.money/
26) Brave Wallet - https://brave.com/wallet/
27) BitPay - https://bitpay.com/wallet/
28) Crypto.com - https://crypto.com/us/defi-wallet
🔎 Explorers 🔍
Explorers are software tools that allow users to inspect the activity that has happened / is happening on-chain. Explorers are typically built-to-blockchain, meaning every chain needs its own explorer. Given the girth of data these tools access, explorers tend to be multi-purpose tools (i.e. data providers/ analytics dashboards / compliance).
1) Ethscan - https://etherscan.io/
2) Bitquery - https://explorer.bitquery.io/
3) Blockchair - https://blockchair.com/
4) Tokenview - https://tokenview.io/
5) Blockcypher - https://www.blockcypher.com/
6) GetBlock - https://getblock.io/explorers/
7) ViewBlock - https://viewblock.io/
8) BreadCrumbs - https://www.breadcrumbs.app/
9) Beaconchain - https://beaconcha.in/
10) Blockstream - https://blockstream.info/
11) Ethplorer - https://ethplorer.io/
12) OXT - https://oxt.me/
13) Xscan - https://xscan.io/
14) Sochain - https://sochain.com/
15) OkLink - https://www.oklink.com/en
16) Pingpub - https://ping.pub/
⛓ On-Chain Data ⛓
On-chain data tools are closely related to explorers in the sense that they allow users to inspect the activity that has happened / is happening on-chain. The main difference between the On-chain Data tools & Explorers is the UI & granularity of data they provide.
*The main difference between On-Chain data providers & traditional market data is the absence of information that is external to any blockchain.
1) Glassnode - https://glassnode.com/
2) Dune Analytics - https://dune.com/home
3) IntoTheBlock - https://www.intotheblock.com/
4) Mempool - https://mempool.space/
5) Artemis - https://www.artemis.xyz/
6) Parsiq - https://www.parsiq.net/
🌉 Bridges 🌉
Within the context of cryptocurrency, a bridge is a software tool or protocol that allows otherwise non-compatible blockchains a method to transfer digital assets between one another.
1) MultiChain - https://multichain.org/
2) CrossChain Bridge - https://www.crosschainbridge.org/
3) Celer C Bridge - https://cbridge.celer.network/1/56/USDC
4) Synapse - https://synapseprotocol.com/
5) Connext - https://bridge.connext.network/USDC-from-ethereum-to-binance
6) Relay - https://www.relaychain.com/
7) Symbiosis - https://symbiosis.finance/
8) Umbria - https://umbria.network/
9) EverBridge - https://www.everrise.com/everbridge/
10) Bungee - https://www.bungee.exchange/
11) Portal Bridge - https://www.portalbridge.com/#/transfer
12) Nomad - https://www.nomad.xyz/
13) Hop - https://hop.exchange/
14) PolyBridge - https://bridge.poly.network/
15) SolarBeam - https://app.solarbeam.io/bridge
16) Orbitchain - https://orbitchain.io/about
💹 DEXes 💹
Decentralized Exchanges are the new financial trading paradigm. Generally free from traditional regulatory scrutiny, DEXs are places to buy, sell, swap & provide liquidity for crypto assets.
1) UniSwap - https://uniswap.org/
2) 1inch - https://app.1inch.io/
3) DexTools - https://www.dextools.io/app/en
4) DexGuru - https://dex.guru/
5) GeckoTerminal - https://www.geckoterminal.com/
6) PancakeSwap - https://pancakeswap.finance/
7) TraderJoe - https://traderjoexyz.com/avalanche
8) Arken - https://swap.arken.finance/
9) Flooz - https://flooz.trade/trade
10) Balancer - https://balancer.fi/
11) Bancor - https://home.bancor.network/
12) Airswap - https://www.airswap.io/#/
13) Sushiswap - https://www.sushi.com/
14) Paraswap - https://www.paraswap.io/
15) Jupiter - https://jup.ag/
16) ThorChain - https://thorchain.org/
17) WooFi - https://fi.woo.org/
18) DYDX - https://trade.dydx.exchange/
19) Slingshot - https://app.slingshot.finance/swap/ETH
20) Apex Exchange - https://www.apex.exchange/
21) Osmosis - https://app.osmosis.zone/
22) Curve - https://curve.fi/#/ethereum/swap
23) Tokenlon - https://tokenlon.im/instant
24) Swapz — https://www.swapz.app/
📅 Calendars & Event Schedules 📅
Keeping up with the Kardashians is much easier than keeping up with your favorite crypto protocol; the question then becomes HOW do you plan to manage the onslaught on events? While there is no easy answer, using a Crypto Calander will definitely help:
1) CoinMarketCal - https://coinmarketcal.com/en/
2) CoinDar - https://coindar.org/
3) CoinsCalendar - https://coinscalendar.com/
4) CryptoTotem - https://cryptototem.com/ico-calendar/
5) CoinCarp events - https://www.coincarp.com/events/
6) VestLabs - https://vestlab.io/calendar
🪂 Airdrops 🪂
The most popular tool for distribution in the entire industry, airdrops are incentives that are offered/provided at the earlier stages of a project’s development to help bootstrap it’s alpha community members.
1) Earnifi - https://earni.fi/
2) airdropsio - https://airdrops.io/
3) AirDropAlert - https://airdropalert.com/
4) AirdropsLive - https://airdrops.live/
5) AirdropBob - https://www.airdropbob.com/
6) AirDropAddict - https://airdropaddict.com/
7) CoinAirDrops - https://coinairdrops.com/
8) ICOdrops - https://icodrops.com/
💸 Grants 💸
Grants are a necessary component to helping startups & innovators get their ideas off the ground. In the world of crypto & blockchain grants are usually offered & deployed on a chain/case-specific basis. In order to be properly up to date on grant opportunities it is best to be actively involved in individual projects and/or blockchains.
1) Blockchain Grants - https://www.blockchaingrants.org/
2) GitCoin - https://gitcoin.co/grants/
3) Consensys - https://consensys.net/grants/
4) Concoridum — https://concordium.com/grants/
5) Web3 grants - https://web3grants.net/
6) Web3Foundation - https://web3.foundation/grants/
7) Ramp Rate - https://ramprate.com/blockchain-grant-opportunities/
8) Unigrants - https://www.unigrants.org/
9) Aave grants - https://aavegrants.org/
10) Near grants - https://near.org/ecosystem/get-funding/
11) Eth Foundation - https://esp.ethereum.foundation/
12) Zcash grants - https://grants.zfnd.org/
13) Alchemy Dev grants - https://www.alchemy.com/developer-grant-program
14) dydx grants — https://www.dydxgrants.com/
15) Solana grants — https://solana.org/grants
16) Gate grants - https://www.gate.io/grants
17) Cryptoneur - https://www.cryptoneur.xyz/en/web3-grants
🛡 Audits 🛡
Audits are used to assess the quality/security of a protocol. When considering a protocol to use, it is nearly impossible to understand all of the associated risk factors, even for professionals. It is crucial that every serious project employs some form of audit for every individual piece of software.
1) Certik - https://www.certik.com/
2) Consensys Dilligence - https://consensys.net/diligence/
3) Hacken - https://hacken.io/services/smart-contract-security-audit/
4) Open Zepplin - https://www.openzeppelin.com/security-audits
5) Trail of Bits - https://www.trailofbits.com/
6) Slowmist - https://www.slowmist.com/
7) Solidified - https://solidified.io/
8) Chain Security - https://chainsecurity.com/smart-contract-audit-reports/
9) PeckShield - https://peckshield.com/#home
10) Halborn - https://halborn.com/
11) Quantstamp - https://quantstamp.com/
12) Solidity Finance - https://solidity.finance/
13) Immune Bytes - https://www.immunebytes.com/
14) NumenCyber - https://www.numencyber.com/
🌊😎 Cool & Honorable Mentions 😎🌊
There are always exotic instruments & services being built to help make sense of the wild world of crypto; some of these are difficult to classify but still deserve attention for serving their own unique & useful purpose(s).
1) Fiat Leak - https://fiatleak.com/
2) Everest - https://everest.link/
3) Revoke.cash - https://revoke.cash/
4) CryptoQuant - https://cryptoquant.com/asset/btc/summary
5) CryptoFees - https://cryptofees.info/
6) Hashrate Index - https://data.hashrateindex.com/asic-index-data
7) LunarCrush — https://lunarcrush.com/home
8) Santiment — https://santiment.net/
9) Gas Fee Calculator — https://www.cryptoneur.xyz/en/gas-fees-calculator
This list is by no means exhaustive, there are thousands of other tools/resources out there. Odds are, you do not even need 1/10 of those on this list; so my recommendation is don’t waste time wishing for better tools — learn how to masterfully use a few key ones provided above.
If you went through the entire list, you might have noticed that there are no CEFI (centralized financial) tools on this list. This was done on purpose, given the madness that transpired with centralized exchanges / service providers throughout 2022.
If for any reason you would like me to add any specific resource that might be beneficial to others, just drop a comment below or send me a DM on Twitter.
Otherwise; I hope you find these tools helpful in building your knowledge & financial freedom.
Thank you so much for reading!
🥂🚀 See you in the next Bull Market 🚀🥂