On-chain analysis tools transform raw blockchain data into signals you can act on, including whale moves, exchange flows, DeFi liquidity, funding imbalances, and even social sentiment. Used alongside technical and fundamental analysis, they help you confirm trends, spot early narratives, and manage risk more systematically.
In this guide, you’ll learn the 10 best free on-chain analytics tools in 2025 and how to use them, from Nansen and Dune to Glassnode, DeFiLlama, Santiment, CoinGlass, and more. You can then apply these insights to your trading on BingX Spot and Futures to build a more data-driven strategy.
What Is On-Chain Analysis in Crypto?
On-chain analysis is the practice of studying blockchain data, such as wallet balances, transactions, smart contract interactions, TVL (total value locked), and more, to understand what market participants are actually doing, not just what prices look like.
Because public blockchains are transparent, you can see:
• Who holds which tokens, e.g., wallet holdings and top holders
• How funds move between wallets and exchanges, e.g., transaction flows, exchange inflows/outflows
• Whether whales, funds, or ETF addresses are accumulating or distributing
• How much capital is locked in DeFi protocols and on which chains
This gives you a “fundamental” view of user behavior. Instead of only asking “What is the price doing?”, you also ask:
• “Are big holders buying or selling?”
• “Is liquidity moving into or out of this ecosystem?”
• “Is activity rising, or is this pump running on low usage?”
Used correctly, on-chain analytics help you validate or challenge your technical setups, time entries and exits around liquidity shifts or whale moves, and avoid tokens with overly concentrated ownership or weak fundamentals. They also let you track new narratives like DeFi, AI agents, RWA (real-world assets), and memecoins early by watching how capital and users start to move on-chain.
What Are the Key On-Chain Metrics Crypto Traders Watch?
While each tool has its own dashboards, most serious on-chain traders focus on a common set of metrics, many of which you saw in the reference material you shared:
1. Active addresses: Gauge network usage and engagement.
2. Transaction volume (value and count): Track where real economic activity is happening.
3. Exchange inflows and outflows: Estimate selling pressure vs accumulation. Tools like CryptoQuant and Glassnode specialize here.
4. Whale movements and top holders: Follow large wallets and concentration risks. Nansen is well-known for this with over 500 million labeled wallets.
5. TVL (Total Value Locked): Understand DeFi protocol and chain-level adoption. DeFiLlama is the primary open-source aggregator.
6. MVRV (Market value to realized value) and cycle indicators: Assess whether the market looks overvalued or undervalued from an on-chain perspective. Glassnode popularized many of these metrics.
7. Funding rates, open interest, liquidation heatmaps: Not purely on-chain, but crucial for derivatives traders. CoinGlass is a go-to for these.
8. Social and developer activity: Santiment combines on-chain, social, and GitHub-style data to show narrative and development strength.
You rarely need every metric. Instead, you pick a few that fit your style and build a consistent workflow.
How to Choose the Right On-Chain Analytics Tool
Use this checklist to quickly identify which tools best fit your skill level, trading style, and workflow.
• Match tools to your skill level:
- Beginner: Use Etherscan, DeFiLlama, CoinGlass
- Intermediate/Advanced: Add Nansen, Glassnode, Santiment, CryptoQuant, Messari
- Data builders: Use Dune for custom SQL dashboards
• Choose based on your trading style:
- Short-term trader: Exchange flows, funding rates, liquidation maps, alerts
- Swing/position trader: MVRV, holder profiles, TVL trends, social sentiment
- DeFi/Web3 user: Protocol TVL, yields, cross-chain flows
• Build a balanced workflow:
- One explorer, e.g., Etherscan
- One macro/derivatives tool, e.g., CoinGlass, CryptoQuant, or Glassnode
- One ecosystem/narrative tool, e.g., Nansen, DeFiLlama, Santiment, or Dune
The 10 Best On-Chain Analysis Tools for Crypto Traders in 2025
Below are the 10 tools for on-chain analysis that most serious crypto traders keep on their radar in 2025.
1. Nansen
Nansen is a leading AI-driven on-chain analytics platform focused on labeled wallets and “smart money” flows. It aggregates data from 20+ chains and over 500 million labeled addresses, helping you see how funds, whales, and sophisticated traders move capital. Traders commonly use Nansen for metrics like Smart Money inflows/outflows, new token holder growth, liquidity pool movements, exchange deposits/withdrawals, fund portfolio changes, and early narrative traction across ecosystems.
Pros and Key Features of Nansen
• Track whales, funds, VCs, smart money, and ETF wallets across multiple chains.
• Follow emerging narratives early, including memecoins, DeFi, AI, RWA, NFTs, and new ecosystem trends.
• Labeled wallets show whether an address belongs to a fund, exchange, team treasury, or top-performing trader.
• Smart Money and Fund Flows dashboards reveal what elite wallets are buying, selling, or farming.
• Narrative discovery tools and watchlists help you identify new tokens and themes before they gain traction.
• AI-powered filters and alerts surface the most relevant on-chain movements without noise.
How to use Nansen: You notice a new mid-cap token listed on BingX. Before entering, you open Nansen to check whether top smart-money wallets are accumulating or exiting, then align your trade size and time horizon accordingly.
2. Dune Analytics
Dune is a community-driven on-chain analytics platform where you can query blockchain data with SQL and turn it into interactive dashboards. It now supports data across 100+ chains and more than 1.5 million datasets, with over 1 million users building and sharing analytical views. Traders commonly use Dune to track DEX volume, liquidity flows, token holder growth, airdrop eligibility metrics, bridge inflows/outflows, NFT mint/trade activity, stablecoin movement, and protocol-specific KPIs across DeFi, NFTs, L2s, and emerging ecosystems.
Pros and Key Features of Dune Analytics
• Ideal for power users, funds, quants, and data-savvy traders who need fully customizable analytics.
• Perfect for tracking niche DeFi protocols, NFTs, emerging chains, or specific ecosystem activity.
• SQL querying layer (DuneSQL) lets you query pre-indexed on-chain tables without running your own node or indexer.
• Public dashboards allow you to learn from and fork community-built analytics for deeper research.
• Analytics API and automation tools enable you to turn queries into live endpoints for bots, risk dashboards, or internal systems.
How to use Dune Analytics: You build a dashboard showing TVL, active users, and token emissions for a particular DeFi protocol, then overlay your entries/exits to understand how protocol health correlates with price action.
3. Glassnode
Glassnode focuses on macro-level on-chain analytics for major assets like BTC and ETH, offering cycle insights and long-term investor behavior models. Traders rely on Glassnode for metrics such as MVRV, Realized Price, HODL waves, long-term vs. short-term holder supply, exchange inflows/outflows, miner balances, stablecoin supply trends, and liquidity stress indicators to gauge market phases and identify overheated or undervalued conditions.
Pros and Key Features of Glassnode
• Ideal for Bitcoin and Ethereum cycle analysis, helping traders assess whether the market is overheated or undervalued.
• Useful for institutions and serious swing or position traders who rely on macro-level on-chain signals.
• MVRV, Realized Price, and HODL waves reveal long-term holder profitability and when coins last moved.
• Exchange flow and liquidity metrics show whether assets are heading to exchanges (sell pressure) or into cold storage (accumulation).
• Professional macro reports and collaborations with institutions like Coinbase and CME provide deep insights on ETF flows, liquidity regimes, and market structure.
How to use Glassnode: You check BTC’s MVRV, supply in profit, and long-term holder behavior before deciding whether to increase exposure, reduce risk, or simply wait for better risk-reward. Bitcoin MVRV (Market Value to Realized Value) measures whether BTC is overvalued or undervalued by comparing its current market price to the average price at which all coins last moved. Traders use it to gauge cycle extremes: high MVRV can signal overheated conditions, while low MVRV often suggests attractive long-term accumulation zones.
4. Messari
Messari is a full-stack crypto intelligence platform combining market data, on-chain metrics, social sentiment, token unlocks, fundraising activity, and deep qualitative research. Traders commonly use Messari to track circulating supply and inflation, token unlock schedules, revenue and fee metrics, chain activity, treasury and fundraising flows, sector performance dashboards, and comparative L1/L2 fundamentals, along with long-form reports that contextualize these metrics within broader market narratives.
Pros and Key Features of Messari
• Ideal for professional and institutional investors, research analysts, and builders who need both quantitative data and qualitative insights.
• Combines on-chain metrics and fundamentals such as supply, fees, revenue, usage, and bridge activity across major blockchains.
• Provides token unlock schedules and fundraising data to help you anticipate VC flows and market impact.
• Offers long-form research and sector reports covering Layer-1 blockchains (L1s), DeFi, NFTs, AI, RWA, and emerging ecosystems.
• Includes an API and AI toolkit to integrate datasets and research directly into your own dashboards, models, or trading systems.
How to use Messari: Before trading a newly listed token, you check Messari’s profile for tokenomics, unlock schedule, and roadmap, then cross-check on-chain usage and fee metrics to see whether the hype is justified.
5. Etherscan
Etherscan is the most widely used block explorer for Ethereum, offering real-time visibility into transactions, addresses, tokens, and smart contracts. Traders typically use Etherscan to check wallet balances, token holder distribution, contract verification, transaction histories, gas fees, approvals, newly deployed contracts, and large wallet movements, helping them confirm legitimacy and avoid interacting with risky or fake assets.
Pros and Key Features of Etherscan
• Ideal for verifying transactions, token contracts, wallet balances, and ensuring contract legitimacy before trading.
• Useful for inspecting DeFi or NFT contract interactions in detail at the transaction and code level.
• Transaction and wallet views show exact amounts, timestamps, gas usage, and event logs for full transparency.
• Token and NFT trackers display holders, top addresses, and transfer histories for ERC-20 and ERC-721 assets.
• Contract verification and read/write tools let you inspect source code, interact directly with smart contracts, and decode logs.
How to use Etherscan: You double-check a token’s contract address from an official source, then confirm on Etherscan that liquidity and holders look organic, and not dominated by a single suspicious wallet, before sending funds from your BingX withdrawal to a DeFi address.
6. DeFiLlama
Traders use DeFiLlama to track TVL trends, protocol fees and revenue, DEX and perps volume, stablecoin inflows/outflows, chain-level growth, yield rankings, liquidity concentration, and market share shifts across ecosystems. These metrics help identify which protocols are gaining traction, where capital is flowing, and which chains are strengthening or weakening over time.
Pros and Key Features of DeFiLlama
• Ideal for comparing DeFi ecosystems across Ethereum, L2s, and alt-L1s to understand where real liquidity and user activity are growing.
• Helps you evaluate whether a protocol’s TVL, fees, and revenue are expanding or declining over time.
• Useful for finding yield opportunities and spotting risk concentration across chains and pools.
• Chains & protocols dashboards provide TVL, fees, revenue, DEX and perps volume, and stablecoin supply per chain.
• Yield rankings aggregate APYs across protocols and chains for easy comparison.
• Fully open-source and ad-free, ensuring transparent data without sponsored distortions.
How to use DefiLlama: Before rotating from ETH to an emerging L2 token, you check DeFiLlama to see whether TVL, fees, and active users on that L2 are actually trending up or just being momentarily farmed for incentives.
7. CryptoQuant
Traders use CryptoQuant to monitor exchange inflows/outflows, exchange reserves, miner balances and selling pressure (MPI), stablecoin flows, funding rates, open interest, whale deposits, and long-dormant coins moving. These metrics help identify short-term supply shifts, potential volatility spikes, and periods of elevated sell or buy pressure in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Pros and Key Features of CryptoQuant
• Ideal for short- to medium-term BTC/ETH traders who rely on real-time supply and liquidity signals.
• Helps monitor potential sell pressure from miners and centralized exchanges to anticipate volatility.
• Useful for creating rule-based alerts and automated workflows around key on-chain metrics.
• Exchange inflow/outflow and reserve data show when coins are entering or leaving exchanges.
• Miner flows and the Miners’ Position Index (MPI) reveal when miners are accumulating or selling their holdings.
• Custom alerts and no-code dashboards let you track spikes in inflows, miner selling, or movements of long-dormant coins.
How to use CryptoQuant: You’re long BTC on BingX futures. CryptoQuant alerts you to a surge in exchange inflows and miner outflows, so you tighten stops or reduce size ahead of potential sell pressure.
8. Chainalysis
Traders and risk teams use Chainalysis primarily for wallet risk scores, sanctions exposure checks, illicit flow tracking, mixer interactions, scam patterns, ransomware flows, and cross-chain laundering paths. These metrics help assess counterparties, avoid high-risk addresses, and understand broader regulatory and security trends shaping market sentiment.
Pros and Key Features of Chainalysis
• Ideal for compliance teams, AML monitoring, and fraud prevention across crypto platforms and financial institutions.
• Widely used for investigating hacks, ransomware attacks, and illicit transaction flows across multiple blockchains.
• Essential for risk teams at exchanges, payment processors, and institutional desks that require robust transaction screening.
• Reactor investigations suite visualizes and traces suspicious flows across chains and mixers, linking on-chain activity with off-chain intelligence.
• KYT (Know Your Transaction) and risk scoring tools provide real-time screening for high-risk counterparties, sanctions exposure, and scam patterns.
• Crypto Crime Reports offer annual insights into hacks, scam volumes, ransomware trends, and major illicit finance patterns.
How to use Chainalysis: You benefit when your exchange uses Chainalysis behind the scenes to filter out high-risk deposits/withdrawals and comply with regulations, which reduces counterparty and platform risk.
9. Santiment
Traders use Santiment for social volume and trending keywords, funding mindshare, whale transaction counts, holder distribution, SOPR-style (Spent Output Profit Ratio style) realized profits/losses, dormant coin activity, development activity scores, and crowd sentiment indicators. These metrics help identify narrative shifts early, spot euphoric or fearful market phases, and confirm whether on-chain behavior supports (or contradicts) price trends.
Pros and Key Features of Santiment
• Ideal for narrative traders focused on memecoins, AI, DeFi, and GameFi, as well as swing traders tracking crowd psychology and FOMO cycles.
• Useful for researchers who want to assess project health using on-chain, social, and development metrics together.
• On-chain datasets include holders, flows, realized P/L, dormant coins, and key behavioral indicators.
• Social metrics track social volume, funding mindshare, trending keywords, and sentiment indicators.
• Development activity scores help gauge long-term commitment and real product progress.
• Powerful API and charting tools let you combine financial, on-chain, and social datasets into unified dashboards.
How to use Santiment: If a token is pumping, you check Santiment: is social volume exploding while development and on-chain usage stagnate? That might hint at a short-lived hype wave instead of sustainable growth.
10. CoinGlass
Traders use CoinGlass for funding rates, open interest, long/short ratios, liquidation heatmaps, ETF flows, volume by exchange, max-pain levels for options, and leverage build-up/unwind signals. These metrics help identify crowded positions, predict volatility spikes, and avoid entering trades near major liquidation clusters or extreme funding conditions.
Pros and Key Features of CoinGlass
• Ideal for futures and perpetuals traders who need real-time insight into derivatives sentiment and positioning.
• Useful for short-term scalpers, swing traders, and anyone tracking funding and liquidation clusters around key price levels.
• Funding rate heatmaps reveal where funding is excessively positive or negative, highlighting crowded long or short positions.
• Liquidation heatmaps show high-risk price zones where large liquidations may be triggered during sharp moves.
• Open interest and volume by exchange help monitor leverage build-ups, unwind events, and market-wide positioning.
• API access allows you to integrate derivatives and selected on-chain metrics into custom models or trading bots.
How to use CoinGlass: Before opening a large futures position on BingX, you check CoinGlass to avoid entering at levels stacked with potential liquidations and extreme funding, then size your trade and stop-loss with that context in mind.
How to Combine Multiple On-Chain Analysis Tools in a Simple Trading Workflow
You don’t need all 10 tools at once. Here’s a practical, step-by-step workflow you can follow, even as a beginner:
1. Generate ideas and research fundamentals: Start with Messari to check token fundamentals, supply data, unlock schedules, and recent fundraising. Use Santiment to gauge narrative strength by looking at social volume, trending keywords, and whether holders are accumulating or taking profits.
2. Check ecosystem health and real usage: Open DeFiLlama to verify whether the project’s TVL, fees, active chains, and user activity are growing or shrinking. Compare its metrics with competitors to avoid dead or hype-only protocols.
3. Track whales and smart money behavior: On Nansen, check if labeled funds, VCs, market makers, or “Smart Money” wallets are net buyers or net sellers over the last 24 hours or 7 days. Rising smart-money accumulation often supports stronger setups.
4. Understand broader market context: Use Glassnode to see whether BTC/ETH are in an overheated or undervalued zone based on metrics like MVRV or Realized Price. Check CryptoQuant to monitor exchange inflows/outflows, miner selling pressure, and stablecoin flows, which influence short-term volatility.
5. Time entries with sentiment, funding and liquidations: Use CoinGlass to view funding rate heatmaps and avoid entering when funding is extremely high or low. Check liquidation heatmaps to see where big wipeout zones sit, which is helpful for setting stops or identifying breakout areas. Re-check Santiment for crowd sentiment to avoid FOMO tops.
6. Verify contracts before trading: Use Etherscan (or the relevant chain explorer) to confirm the official token contract, check for suspicious contract functions, and review recent whale transactions. This step protects you from fake tokens, honeypots, and phishing imitators.
7. Automate your strategy (optional): Build a simple dashboard in Dune to track metrics you care about, e.g., holder growth, inflows, supply changes. Use APIs from Nansen, Messari, CryptoQuant, Santiment, or CoinGlass to trigger alerts for whale trades, funding spikes, unlock events, or volatility signals. Combine these signals with BingX AI inside your BingX account to get real-time trade insights, risk alerts, and automated pattern detection that help refine your final trade decisions.
You can then execute and manage trades on BingX, using this on-chain and market data as a decision layer, and not as a guarantee.
What Are the Benefits and Limitations of On-Chain Analytics?
Before relying on on-chain data in your trading, it’s important to understand where these tools excel and where their insights may fall short.
Benefits of On-Chain Analytics Tools
• Gives you transparent, verifiable data instead of pure sentiment
• Helps confirm or invalidate technical setups
• Highlights hidden risks, e.g., concentrated holders, exchange inflow spikes
• Surfaces early trends before they appear in mainstream news
Limitations of Performing On-Chain Analysis
• Data still requires interpretation; the same inflow can mean very different things depending on context.
• Tools can be expensive at higher tiers
• Many metrics are lagging or medium-term, not perfect for scalping
• Whales and funds sometimes move capital in ways that deliberately “fake out” on-chain observers
Always combine on-chain data with price action, macro conditions, and risk management, not as a standalone signal.
Closing Thoughts
On-chain analysis has become a core part of crypto trading in 2025, offering clearer visibility into market behavior across Bitcoin cycles, DeFi ecosystems, and emerging narratives like AI and memecoins. Tools such as Nansen, Dune, Glassnode, Messari, Etherscan, DeFiLlama, CryptoQuant, Chainalysis, Santiment, and CoinGlass help traders interpret liquidity flows, smart-money movements, fundamentals, sentiment, and security signals with far more precision.
You don’t need to learn every tool at once. Start with Etherscan, DeFiLlama, and CoinGlass if you’re new, then add CryptoQuant, Glassnode, and Santiment as you grow comfortable with data-driven trading. When you’re ready for deeper insights or custom dashboards, layer in Nansen, Dune, and Messari. These tools can strengthen your BingX trading strategies across spot, futures, copy trading, and bots, but always apply proper risk management and verify information before acting.
Related Reading
FAQs on On-Chain Analysis Tools for Trading Crypto
1. What is the best on-chain analysis tool for beginners?
The best on-chain analysis tool for beginners depends on what you want to track, but most beginners get the best results by starting with Etherscan, DeFiLlama, and CoinGlass.
• Etherscan helps you verify transactions, wallet balances, and token contracts.
• DeFiLlama gives you an easy view of TVL, fees, and ecosystem growth for any chain or protocol.
• CoinGlass shows funding rates, open interest, and liquidation zones so you avoid entering trades at risky levels.
Together, these free tools cover the essentials: usage, liquidity, leverage, and security checks, without needing SQL, coding, or advanced analytics experience.
2. Which on-chain analytics tools are best for tracking whales and “smart money”?
Nansen is the most widely used for wallet labeling and smart money flows across 20+ chains. You can see what funds, whales, and sophisticated traders are buying, selling, and farming in near real time. Some traders also supplement Nansen with custom Dune dashboards to track specific entities or protocols.
3. How do I use on-chain analysis alongside my BingX trading?
You can use Glassnode and CryptoQuant to understand BTC/ETH cycle conditions, DeFiLlama to verify whether the ecosystems behind your altcoin trades are gaining traction, Santiment and Nansen to confirm whale activity and sentiment alignment, and CoinGlass to avoid entering positions during extreme funding or liquidation zones. You still execute and manage your trades on BingX; these tools simply help you decide when to enter, exit, or adjust your position size with better context.
4. Are these on-chain tools free?
Most tools use a freemium model:
• Free tiers: Etherscan, DeFiLlama, Dune (with rate limits), much of Santiment’s and Glassnode’s basic charts, plus free-to-view dashboards and some CoinGlass metrics.
• Paid tiers: Nansen, advanced Glassnode/CryptoQuant metrics, Messari Pro/Enterprise, Santiment Pro, and CoinGlass APIs. These unlock historical depth, extra chains, real-time alerts, and export/APIs.
Choose based on how much you trade, your capital size, and whether the extra insight will actually change your decisions.
5. Can I rely only on on-chain analysis to make trading decisions?
No. On-chain data is powerful, but it doesn’t tell the full story. Big players can move funds for reasons unrelated to immediate market moves, and metrics can be misinterpreted without context. The most effective traders combine on-chain data like flows, holders, TVL, technical analysis like price, volume, structure, and fundamentals and news, such as tokenomics, upgrades, macro events.
Always use position sizing, stop-losses, and scenario planning, especially when trading leveraged products on platforms like BingX.