How to Spot Trending Crypto Coins - And What It Means for Your Taxes

How to Spot Trending Crypto Coins – And What It Means for Your Taxes

Imagine spotting the next big crypto project before the rest of the market catches on. The difference between getting in early and arriving late can mean life-changing gains—or missed opportunities.

Take Solana (SOL), for example. If you had bought within the first six months of its launch in 2020, you’d be sitting on a 2,000% return by 2025. Or consider PEPE, launched in 2023—if you got in during its first year, you could have seen 1,200% gains by 2025. Even newer projects like Story (2025) have surged, climbing 250% within their first month.

🚀 Getting in early matters. But while chasing trends can be profitable, finding the real gems among the noise isn’t easy.

With thousands of new tokens launching every month, it can be overwhelming to separate high-potential projects from the endless stream of irrelevance entering the market.

But it really is surprisingly possible, thanks to powerful analytics tools. Platforms like Moralis with it's real-time crypto analytics help identify trending tokens using data-driven criteria such as buy pressure, actively trading wallets, social media hype, and more—giving you the best shot at spotting the next big mover before the rest of the market catches on.

How to Identify Trending Tokens

The crypto market moves fast, and getting in early on a trending token can mean the difference between major profits and missing the wave entirely. But how do you separate genuine trends from short-term hype or even outright scams?

There are a few key indicators that can help you spot tokens gaining traction before they hit the mainstream:

1. Track Trading Volume Spikes

A sudden surge in trading volume often signals growing interest in a token. It might be due to a major exchange listing, influencer attention, or real-world adoption. However, volume alone isn’t enough—check if liquidity is increasing too. A high-volume token with low liquidity can be easily manipulated, making it risky to trade.

2. Look for Sudden Increases in Holders

When the number of unique wallets holding a token jumps significantly, it suggests organic growth and real adoption. However, just seeing more holders isn’t enough—it’s even better if you can check who these holders are.

If the new wallets are completely fresh with no prior transactions, it could indicate bots or artificial wallet creation to inflate numbers.
If many new holders are experienced traders with active past transactions, this suggests real demand from knowledgeable investors.

If only a handful of large wallets are trading the token back and forth, it could just be whales trying to create artificial demand. A true trend involves a growing and diverse holder base of real users.

3. Identify New Tokens with Positive Buy Pressure

Newly launched tokens can explode in popularity, but you need to analyze whether the buy pressure is sustained or just a temporary spike. A token with a rising number of buyers outpacing sellers over time suggests that it’s gaining legitimate traction rather than being a pump-and-dump scheme.

4. Watch Out for False Flags

Not all price jumps are real trends. Some signals can be misleading:

Price jumps but trading volume stays low? Likely a fake pump with little real demand.
Holders aren’t increasing? It could just be a few whales moving funds to manipulate price action.
Liquidity remains low? A sign that a token’s price can be easily controlled by a few players.

5. Use Data-Driven Insights

All these indicators—volume spikes, new experienced holders, buy pressure, and liquidity changes—can be tracked with real-time analytics tools like Moralis. By leveraging on-chain data, you can identify trending tokens before they make headlines, while also avoiding projects with high manipulation risk.

In the next section, we’ll explore how to use Moralis to track these trends in real-time and make informed decisions when spotting the next big token.

How to Identify Trending Tokens with Moralis

When it comes to spotting the next big crypto trend, having access to real-time data is crucial. Moralis simplifies this process by providing real-time crypto analytics, ranking tokens based on multiple key metrics.

Moralis' trending token rankings are built using a combination of on-chain activity, liquidity changes, buyer trends, and security scores, allowing you to filter out the noise and focus on genuine market movements.

Key Metrics Used by Moralis to Rank Trending Tokens

Moralis evaluates trending tokens using a variety of technical and behavioral indicators:

Hype Score – Measures increased positive on-chain activity that may lead to a price increase.
Security Score – Assesses the token's reliability using Moralis’ on-chain data analytics.
DEXT Score – A security rating from Dextools, helping to spot high-risk tokens.
ROI – Tracks the maximum price increase since the token was first identified as trending.
Total Volume – The total amount of tokens traded within a specified timeframe.
Holders – The change in the number of wallets holding the token, a key indicator of adoption.
Price Percent Change – The percentage increase or decrease in price over a given period.
Liquidity – Tracks how much liquidity is available for the token, ensuring it isn’t easily manipulated.
Market Cap & Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) – Measures the total value of a token, considering both current supply and potential future supply.
Social Media Metrics – Monitors token mentions, followers, and engagement across platforms like X (formerly Twitter).
Buyers vs. Sellers – Tracks the number of new addresses buying or selling the token.
Experienced Buyers/Sellers – Focuses on traders with at least 100 previous transactions, filtering out bots and newcomers.
Buyers/Sellers Volume – Measures the total volume of tokens traded by buyers versus sellers.
Net Buyers & Experienced Net Buyers – The difference between buyers and sellers, including a version that filters for experienced traders.
Buy Pressure – Evaluates whether buyer volume is exceeding seller volume, indicating bullish momentum.
Coin Age – Determines how long a token has existed, helping distinguish between new trends and established assets.
Category Filters – Allows users to filter by sectors such as DeFi, Gaming, and AI tokens.
On-Chain Strength Index – A premium metric that evaluates multiple on-chain indicators across all timeframes.

Customize Your Strategy with Moralis

One of the standout features of Moralis is the ability to define your own strategy based on key metrics. Whether you want to focus on:

Hype Score (detecting high-activity tokens),
Buy Pressure (ensuring demand is outpacing selling),
Net Buyers & Experienced Traders (identifying real interest rather than artificial pumps)

Alternatively, if you prefer a ready-made strategy, Moralis also offers pre-built trend tracking tools, such as:

New Tokens with Positive Buy Pressure – Perfect for spotting promising projects early.
Trending AI Tokens – Identifies the hottest AI-related cryptocurrencies.

Dive Deeper: Supply Distribution & Top Wallets

For each token, Moralis also provides insights into supply distribution and the top wallets holding the currency, allowing you to analyze whether the token’s ownership is diversified or concentrated in the hands of a few large players (whales).

By using Moralis, traders can cut through market hype and focus on data-backed insights to identify genuine crypto trends, before the rest of the market catches on.

How to Handle Taxes for Trending Tokens with Divly

Spotting trending tokens is just one side of the coin—reporting your crypto taxes accurately is the other. Whether you’re trading on Ethereum, Solana, or Binance Smart Chain, every taxable event needs to be accounted for, including gains from short-term trades, swaps, and even airdrops. This is where Divly makes the process effortless.

Seamless Blockchain Imports Across Multiple Networks

Moralis allows you to filter trending tokens by blockchain, including Ethereum, Polygon, Fantom, Pulsechain, Base, Solana, Binance Smart Chain, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Avalanche—and the good news is Divly supports all of them.

With Divly’s automated blockchain imports, you can:

Sync your wallet data instantly – No need for manual entry, just connect your wallet and let Divly do the rest.
Track transactions across multiple chains – Whether you're swapping on Uniswap, staking on Avalanche, or flipping NFTs on Solana, Divly consolidates all your trades in one place.
Match on-chain and off-chain transactions – If you bought a trending token on a DEX with a currency you transferred in from a centralized exchange, then Divly ensures both transactions are linked, so your tax report stays accurate.

Crypto Tax Reporting Made Simple

Once your transactions are imported, Divly:

Automatically categorizes your transactions – Trades, staking rewards, airdrops, and more are correctly labeled for tax purposes.
Calculates your capital gains and losses – No need for spreadsheets; Divly determines your taxable profits based on local tax rules.
Generates tax reports tailored to your country – Whether you’re filing in the US, Sweden, France, and 15+ other countries, Divly ensures your report aligns with your local tax authority’s requirements.