Question 1

What is market capitalization and how is it useful for crypto investments?

Accepted Answer

Market cap is the total value of all circulating coins on the network at present – simply put, it equals the coin's current price multiplied by circulating supply. Market cap is an approximate indicator of the scale and riskiness of a particular crypto project. Big-cap coins are more liquid and less volatile but have less explosive upside. Small-cap coins can yield enormous returns – but also lose their entire market cap in a week. It says nothing about whether a coin is undervalued or overvalued – you need the fundamentals for that.

Question 2

What is the difference between Proof of Work and Proof of Stake?

Accepted Answer

Proof of Work consensus (PoW) involves validating transactions and mining new blocks through energy-intensive processes carried out by specialized machines called miners. Bitcoin is probably the best-known crypto asset to employ Proof of Work. Proof of Stake (PoS) is where validation and mining depend on the number of coins staked. PoS is more energy-efficient and allows for staking yield generation. PoW tends to be battle-hardened and thus more secure; PoS enables faster finality.

Question 3

What is tokenomics and how can it inform my decision?

Accepted Answer

The term refers to the economics of a cryptocurrency project in question. Tokenomics include details such as total supply, circulating supply, emission schedule, inflation rate, the mechanics of burning tokens, and how coins or tokens are distributed among the team behind the project, its investors, and the general public. Coins with huge allocations to team members and aggressive issuance schedules face persistent sell pressure on the market. Tokenomics help you gauge whether the coin favors you or works against you.

Question 4

What do you mean by "on-chain activity" and why is it useful?

Accepted Answer

On-chain activity pertains to how a blockchain is used in practice. Key indicators include the number of daily addresses using a network, transaction volume, TVL (total value locked in DeFi apps), and developer contributions to the underlying protocol. On-chain activity metrics indicate whether the project in question actually has traction or sees no more than price action driven purely by speculators. Any decline in dev ecosystem health or transaction volume despite the price staying relatively high may be an early red flag.

Question 5

What is a crypto ecosystem and why should I care?

Accepted Answer

An ecosystem is the community of apps, protocols, and projects built on top of a blockchain in question. Ethereum is famous for its thriving ecosystem that includes numerous DeFi protocols, NFT platforms, L2 solutions, and other projects that enhance Ethereum and make it attractive to users beyond just speculation. A blockchain ecosystem creates demand for the base layer currency – every transaction requires a fee in it. A blockchain without an ecosystem is just a platform.

Question 6

What is a crypto halving and why do people care about it?

Accepted Answer

Halving is an event in which the reward for mining a block on a Proof of Work blockchain is cut in half. As a result, new coins enter circulation at a lower rate than before. Bitcoin halves every four years, give or take a month depending on the exact moment. The impact of a halving is a supply shock on the market that usually results in a rally. Halvings have historically been followed by bullish periods – although there's significant variation in both timing and scale.

Question 7

What is the difference between a coin and a token?

Accepted Answer

A coin is the native currency of its underlying network. For example, Bitcoin exists only on the Bitcoin blockchain while Ethereum is limited to the Ethereum ecosystem, and Solana on Solana. On the contrary, a token is created on top of a pre-existing blockchain according to certain standards (such as ERC-20 or BEP-20) and is fully dependent on the underlying blockchain's performance. Most GameFi and DeFi protocols create tokens rather than coins.

Launched
Metal (MTL)
Metal (MTL) is an ERC-20 asset and a native token of the Metal Pay gateway. It’s trading on the number of exchanges against other cryptos.	Zcash (ZEC) is a cryptocurrency with strong cryptography that is supposed to provide high security and privacy. At some point, Zcash was endorsed by Edward Snowden and Roger Ver. Zcash is a Bitcoin fork and it exists since 2016. The mechanism providing privacy is called zero-knowledge proofs (or zk-SNARKS).
2017	2016
Website:	Website:
Asset status
Active	Active
Asset type
Coin	Coin
Auditors
CertikScore: 79.78Updated: May 15, 2026	CertikScore: 90.22Updated: May 15, 2026
Blockchain list

Top Companies

Blog

Compare Metal (MTL) vs Zcash (ZEC)

Live markets

Metal (MTL) vs Zcash (ZEC) Comparison for 2026: Investing & Trading

Market Cap and Valuation

Blockchain Network Consensus

Scalability: TPS & Layer-2

Tokenomics: Max Supply and Distribution

On-Chain Activity: Users and Developers

The Conclusion

Frequently Asked Questions