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Net Unrealized Profit/Loss (NUPL)

Net Unrealized Profit/Loss is calculated as the difference between market capitalization and realized capitalization, divided by market capitalization. The result expresses, as a single ratio, whether the network's supply is sitting on aggregate unrealized gains or losses relative to the price each coin last moved at, and by how much.

NUPL is commonly read across a small number of descriptive zones. Negative readings indicate the network is in aggregate unrealized loss, a condition sometimes called capitulation. Readings near zero describe a market near breakeven. As NUPL rises through progressively higher positive readings, a larger share of the supply is sitting on paper gains, a condition some frameworks describe with labels such as optimism, belief, and, at the highest historical readings, euphoria.

Because it is derived from realized cap, NUPL moves with the same underlying cost-basis data as MVRV and the MVRV Z-Score, but expresses the relationship as a share of market cap rather than as a raw dollar gap or a standard-deviation score. It describes the current distribution of unrealized profit across the network, not a signal to buy or sell.