Best crypto analytics tools to research and trade cryptocurrencies

The crypto space moves quickly, and staying ahead of ‌market trends to make informed decisions could give you a much-needed edge. That’s why many crypto companies have developed analytics tools to help traders navigate the space.

In this article, we'll explore some of the latest and most advanced tools you can use to identify powerful insights and make informed trading decisions.

Why do you need analytics tools for trading crypto?

Good crypto trading 101 is to analyze the market and find the right opportunity to place an order. As part of this process, analytical tools can help you to process data and gain a comprehensive understanding of the market, helping you to develop an informed trading strategy that maximizes opportunities while minimizing risk. 

Most crypto analytics tools can be classified into one of the following categories: 

• Technical analysis tools

• Fundamental analysis tools

• On-chain analytics tools

• Sentiment analysis tools

Let's look at the popular tools in each category. 

Technical analysis tools

Technical analysis tools help predict the future price movements of cryptocurrencies based on historical price data and volume. This technical data is represented in a chart where trading opportunities can be identified based on trading patterns. However,‌ technical analysis is based on historical data, and therefore doesn’t guarantee future performance. 

TradingView

TradingView is the most popular charting platform and an essential tool for crypto trading. OKX has partnered with TradingView to allow our users to study and interact with charts from the trading console. However, you can go a step further and use TradingView to access more tools and data. It includes custom scripts, viewing multiple charts at the same time, price alerts, and more. 

Price: A free version is available alongside a feature-rich paid plan with a fee of up to $599 per year. The various paid plans provide access to additional charts, indicators, and alerts. 

Pros:

• TradingView is an industry-standard charting tool giving simple access to accurate and sophisticated data. 

• Accessible from anywhere on both desktop and mobile platforms. 

• Supports custom scripts for advanced users to develop their own trading strategies. 

Cons: 

• The free plan is limited, but many traders upgrade to a paid plan for advanced tools. 

• The paid plans can be relatively more expensive compared to competing platforms. However, there are very few alternatives to TradingView. 

• Can't trade directly from TradingView. 

Coinigy

Coinigy is a popular cloud-based charting and trading platform that focuses on cryptocurrency markets. The platform integrates real-time access to data from 45 different cryptocurrency exchanges, with trading and other portfolio management tools available. Traders can conveniently view charts, place trades, control positions, and manage their portfolios across multiple exchanges on one single platform. 

Price: There’s no free plan. A 7-day trial is available, after which you’ll pay $18.66 for the ‘pro’ plan. 

Pros: 

• Convenient to analyze and trade cryptocurrencies on a single interface. 

• Simplified portfolio management across multiple exchanges. 

Cons: 

• No free plan. Only a free 7-day trial. 

• Supports 45 major crypto exchanges, meaning not all exchanges are supported. 

Fundamental analysis tools

A successful trader uses both technical and fundamental analysis to trade. Fundamental analysis is used to determine the intrinsic value of various cryptocurrencies before trading them. Moreover, the crypto market is very news-sensitive. Positive coverage of a cryptocurrency can have an immediate positive impact on its price, and vice versa. Therefore, it's important for traders to use fundamental analysis and stay informed about the market as they look for trading opportunities. 

OKX Learn

OKX Learn is a comprehensive educational platform designed to help you grow your crypto knowledge. The platform is updated regularly with the latest updates on market analysis, tokens, NFTs, and blockchain protocols. It's a great starting point ‌for both beginners and experienced traders seeking out fundamental analysis. 

For crypto newbies, OKX Learn provides an extensive catalogue of articles on everything they’d want to know while getting started. At the same time, there's enough content for experienced traders to learn about new and upcoming protocols and tokens. 

Price: Free

Pros: 

• Caters to traders of all experience levels. 

• Content is updated regularly to reflect new developments across the crypto market.

• Free to use. 

Cons: 

• All articles are published in English and translations are made into other languages, but not across all articles.  

CoinMarketCap

CoinMarketCap is a leading information platform that offers price data from most cryptocurrency exchanges. It also provides real-time market data on market cap, volume, historical price trends, supply, and more, for thousands of cryptocurrencies. This information is extremely important for performing fundamental analysis of any cryptocurrency. 

CoinMarketCap also has additional useful information, such as links to the coin’s official social channels, official website, whitepaper, contract address, and more. The platform also curates real-time news, making it convenient to filter out‌ updates specific to the cryptocurrency you're researching. 

Price: Free

Pros: 

• Comprehensive market data with a wealth of information. 

• Real-time news filtered by cryptocurrencies.

• Quick access to official links to projects. 

Cons: 

• CoinMarketCap is a good starting point for fundamental analysis but it can lack in-depth analysis. 

• Information on low-cap coins might be inaccurate as the data is sometimes self-reported. 

Messari

Messari is a well-known crypto analytics and research platform that provides in-depth reports on cryptocurrencies. The platform includes detailed insights on asset profiles, regulatory frameworks, trends, technical developments, macroeconomic insights, and more. 

Messari also regularly reports on various projects, reviewing their tokenomics, roadmaps, and the team. The crypto market is often opaque, and this kind of research can speed up your fundamental analysis. 

Price: Starts with a free plan providing basic reports. More sophisticated insights require an $899 per-year subscription. 

Pros: 

• Comprehensive research and reporting on cryptocurrencies, including information that’s often hard to find. 

• High-quality research.

• Access to real-time curated news and advanced screening tools. 

Cons: 

• The price of the pro plan can be expensive for some traders. 

• All of the research is done manually. Therefore, it's impossible for Messari to cover all markets. 

On-chain analytics tools

On-chain analytics tools provide real-time insights to on-chain crypto activities. The blockchain-based technology offers incredible transparency that’s not available on other markets. Traders can make well-informed decisions by observing transaction data, wallet addresses, smart contract interactions, and DeFi interactions related to other market participants. On-chain analytics tools help simplify this data on a single platform. 

Dune 

Dune is a powerful platform that allows you to create custom dashboards by querying on-chain data. It supports Ethereum and other popular blockchain platforms. 

Creating a custom dashboard requires knowledge of structured query language (SQL). However, Dune hosts thousands of community-created dashboards that are free to use. You can blend and create dashboards at a granular level with access to multiple blockchain data points. 

Price: It’s free to access community-created dashboards and to create basic dashboards. You only need to choose a paid plan if you want to create advanced dashboards that query thousands of datapoints. 

Pros: 

• Thousands of free-to-use dashboards created by the community. 

• A powerful querying tool to create dashboards on any blockchain data you want. 

• The free plan is very generous for most traders. 

Cons: 

• Has a steep learning curve if you want to create your own dashboard. SQL knowledge is required to query data. 

Nansen

Nansen is another popular on-chain analytics tool. Unlike Dune, Nansen has a variety of pre-built dashboards that cater to cryptocurrency traders. It focuses on Ethereum and other Ethereum Virtual Machine chains. Nansen provides an easy visual representation of complex blockchain data, with alerts, watchlists, and wallet labeling. 

Price: A free version is available. However, you need the paid “pioneer” plan for most features, which costs $1,200 annually. 

Pros: 

• Easy-to-use, intuitive dashboards with abundant information for both beginners and experienced traders. 

• Wallet labeling helps identify trading activity of whales and exchanges. 

• Real-time on-chain alerts.

Cons: 

• You need to upgrade to the paid plan for better information, which could be expensive for individual traders. 

Sentiment analysis tools

Sentiment analysis tools help traders to gauge the overall sentiment of the market with signals from multiple sources. Sentiment analysis isn't quantifiable like technical analysis, which is why many traders use different sources to gain a rounded, and, in theory, more accurate perspective on market sentiment. 

Google Trends

Google Trends is a popular free tool to gauge public interest in popular topics and cryptocurrencies. You can type in the name of a cryptocurrency and Google Trends will show you the level of interest in the asset on a scale of 1 to 100. You can also use it to check for interest among categories such as NFTs ‌and memecoins. 

Social media platforms

Social media platforms such as X, Telegram, and Discord are rich sources of real-time sentiment analysis. By tracking the hashtags and conversations happening on cryptocurrencies, you can gauge whether the sentiment is positive or negative. However, there's also a lot of noise, irrelevant information, bias, and bot-manipulated content. It might therefore take a while to dig through the chatter and find ‌useful insights. Look for ‌authoritative voices on each platform and follow them for updates.

Perpetual futures funding rates

Perpetual futures are a unique type of futures contract without an expiry date. Exchanges use a concept called funding rate to align the price of the futures contract to the market. When the funding rate is positive, long positions pay short positions, indicating bullish market sentiment. Similarly, when the funding rate is negative, ‌short positions pay long positions, indicating the market sentiment is bearish.

The final word

Crypto analytics tools are important for any kind of trader, being a valuable assistant as you navigate the volatility and unpredictability of crypto trading. Many day traders prefer to spend more time applying technical analysis tools. Meanwhile, those who take a longer-term view typically focus more on fundamental analysis tools. 

Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced trader, crypto analytics tools are essential. We always recommend you complete careful due diligence before you begin trading, and that means understanding the various analytical tools available so you can find the right mix to support your trading strategy and manage risk.