There are hundreds of Bitcoin metrics. But only a few really move the needle.
A genuine question for the community:
- What on-chain or market metrics do you check regularly?
- Which ones would you recommend to someone just getting started?
- Is there any important metric that only exists behind a paywall?
I'm asking because I'm building a free dashboard (SatoshiDashboard) #1451630 and before pushing further I'd rather understand what people actually need than assume too much...
This project started as something I built just for myself and shared here on SN with zero expectations but people liked the idea and contributed in different ways. So if this project really adds even a small grain of value to the community, I think it belongs to all of us too. I'd love to hear your ideas.
There are so many. Try and do something different.
E.g. how many frogs you can buy with a Bitcoin.
ahaha @sime I'll take into account the idea of the concept you're proposing, and you're partly right Bitcoin doesn't always have to be so square or cold ahaha. Actually, I know just where to put it: I was already about to build a Big Mac index vs BTC, and I think that would be a great place to add a subsection with all kinds of funny things you could buy with BTC :v
I liked the idea as a small token of appreciation for your comment, I'm including you on the supporters page. https://github.com/Satoshi-Dashboard/project-supporters/blob/main/README.md
Thanks for the recommendation @kilianbuhn I'll add the price per vbyte and the historical hashrate (I imagine that's what you mean, since the current one is already displayed). Any endpoints you'd suggest for fetching the historical hashrate? Attached as a small token of appreciation for the feedback, I'm adding you to the supporter list.
https://github.com/Satoshi-Dashboard/project-supporters/blob/main/README.md
i don't know any API endpoints for the hashrate. There are websites that show this iirc. I think theoretically the hashrate could be calculated from the blocks and timestamps alone - but I am not smart enough to know how to do this
The metric I care about the most is "how big is my stack?"
:v I'm not sure if this comment has a double meaning or if you're really referring to your stack of sats either way, I'll interpret it as a stack of sats.
Replying to your comment: I think that would go a bit against the spirit of Satoshi Dashboard, since the idea is that anyone can view Bitcoin metrics. While it's important to track your own portfolio's performance in various ways, Satoshi Dashboard will not include metrics related to people's personal portfolios, for 2 reasons. The first is to avoid security breaches that could threaten the security and privacy of each owner, and the second is to prevent Satoshi Dashboard from storing sensitive user information. That said, your idea is good it may not be feasible right now, but it might become viable once Satoshi Dashboard can be deployed in a self-hostable way on the app stores of the various node platforms that support apps. That way we ensure the security of sensitive information.
In the meantime, I can recommend https://ghostfol.io self-hosted, or if you have Umbrel or any node that supports apps, you could download it there. It's a great app for viewing everything related to your portfolio.
One metric I never see on dashboards but check constantly: the ratio of public Lightning channel capacity to on-chain transaction fees. When on-chain fees spike, opening new channels gets expensive, so existing channel capacity becomes more valuable. The ratio tells you whether Lightning is getting cheaper or more expensive to enter relative to on-chain.
Right now it's historically cheap to open channels because fees are low and capacity is high. But during the 2023 inscription surge, the cost to open a 1M sat channel briefly exceeded 10% of the channel value. That's when Lightning started looking like a walled garden instead of an open network.
The other one worth tracking that's usually paywalled: UTXO set growth rate. It's the closest thing Bitcoin has to a "state bloat" metric. If the UTXO set grows faster than pruning removes spent outputs, full node storage requirements compound. Mempool.space shows the current UTXO count but not the growth rate trend, which is what actually matters for node operators planning hardware.
For your dashboard specifically -- I'd suggest a "Lightning accessibility index" that combines channel opening cost, median routing fees, and public node count. Nobody tracks all three together, but they tell the real story of whether Lightning is getting more or less accessible to normal users.
Most underrated metric: the spread between fee percentiles, not the absolute sats/vB.
When mempool.space shows 10th/50th/90th percentiles converging (say 5/6/7 sat/vB), mempool is clearing and fees will drop within 2-3 blocks. When they're spread wide (5/25/80), you have layered congestion — pay the 90th if you're in a hurry, wait 20+ blocks if you're not.
Absolute feerate tells you what happened last block. The percentile spread tells you what the next 3 blocks will cost.
If I were starting from zero and wanted a dashboard that is both useful and not overwhelming I would focus on three buckets
Price and liquidity
On chain macro structure
Market positioning and froth
For price and liquidity you really only need a few things
Spot price per exchange
Aggregate volume
Order book depth and spread
Basic volatility metrics
If your dashboard can clearly show where real spot liquidity is and how it changes around big moves you already deliver more signal than most noisy platforms
For on chain macro structure this is where Bitcoin actually shines because the data is transparent
Realized price and market cap versus realized cap
MVRV or some simple realized value multiple
Hodl waves or a stripped down long term holder short term holder supply view
Fees versus block subsidy share and mempool congestion as a proxy for actual economic use