What is fundamental data?

Fundamental data versus market data

Market data concerns price and trading: quotes, trades, and the bars and metrics derived from them. Fundamental data concerns substance: what an asset is and how it is performing beneath the price. A company's share price changes continuously, but its revenue, debt, and earnings change on a reporting schedule. Fundamentals provide the slower-moving context that price alone does not.

Company fundamentals

For listed companies, fundamental data comes largely from official disclosures. Financial statements report revenue, profit, assets, and liabilities; filings provide the fuller record and accompanying detail; ratios condense these into comparable figures. Together they describe the financial condition of the business behind the security, which is the basis of fundamental analysis.

• Financial statements: revenue, earnings, assets, liabilities, cash flow.
• Filings: the official disclosures and the detail behind the numbers.
• Ratios: standardized figures for comparing companies.

On-chain fundamentals

For crypto and DeFi, the equivalent information is recorded on-chain. Metrics such as Total Value Locked, token supply, and holder counts describe how a protocol or token is used and capitalized, drawn directly from public blockchain data. They serve the same role as company fundamentals: a view of the underlying asset alongside its price.

How fundamental data is used

Fundamental data is used to assess value rather than only to track price: comparing companies, screening for specific characteristics, or evaluating a protocol. Because it updates on a reporting or on-chain schedule rather than continuously, it is lighter to handle than a price feed but requires careful interpretation. It provides context rather than a real-time signal.