With the global market recently flooded with countless new projects, adding what seems like dozens of new coins and tokens each day, investors and traders will appreciate ways to filter out all the noise when they go to monitor markets.
Luckily, there are tools to do just that. Sifting through every single crypto asset is hardly ideal, but using crypto market scanners to find the specific assets you would be most interested in should save you a lot of time and help you better explore your trading ideas.
However, much like the sea of crypto assets, there’s a laundry list of crypto market scanner options to choose from, so we decided to scan the scanners, if you will, and break that laundry list down to a more manageable size of all the best ones.
- Best overall: CoinMarketCap
- Best for beginners: CoinRotator
- Best for active traders: altFins
- Best for DeFi: DappRadar
What is a Crypto Scanner?
A crypto scanner is a tool that gives you an overview of the cryptocurrency market.
With a crypto scanner, you’ll be able to filter your searches for crypto assets according to specific parameters like price changes, volume, category, and even technical indicators.
Are crypto screeners worth paying for?
While paid crypto scanners have noteworthy advantages, it is unlikely you’ll need more than what the free scanner options have to offer.
Plenty of free scanners include advanced filtering options that are anything but restrictive, so paying for a crypto scanner should only be considered if you are a professional crypto trader or investor with extremely advanced scanner needs.
CoinMarketCap (Best Overall)
In the world of crypto, CoinMarketCap is arguably the gold standard for places to follow the crypto market.
Aside from its incredibly user-friendly design, CoinMarketCap comes with a full suite of features, one of which is a top-notch crypto scanner.
Despite offering some of the most advanced and customizable filters, the scanner is still very easy to use.
You can opt for simple filters related to category, algorithm, platform, or industry and even view a heat map to visualize the state of the crypto market.
CoinMarketCap even has filter presets like top gainers, market data, trader, and classic, so you don’t have to spend time adding your own parameters.
That said, you can also add your own custom filters for any number of parameters like circulating supply, volume, price change, timeframe, and plenty more, so hardcore traders will still be free to create their own custom scanners with up to 12 metrics.
Overall, if you’re in the market for a crypto scanner, you won’t regret checking out CoinMarketCap. It’s aesthetic, easy to use, and allows a high degree of customization to help you find the exact coin or token you’re looking for.
Key Features
- User-friendly
- Advanced filter options (up to 12 metrics)
- Category breakdowns
- Crypto heat map
CoinRotator (Best for Beginners)
CoinRotator is perhaps a lesser-known crypto scanner option, but it is still well deserving of making this best-of list.
For one, CoinRotator is just a scanner, so you won’t get lost in a sea of features. Its simplicity and sleek design make it a great yet digestible service anyone solely focused on market changing-movements will undoubtedly appreciate.
That being said, CoinRotator doesn’t have nearly as many filters as other crypto scanners. Users can filter based on market cap, asset category, crypto exchanges, and derivative market, but that’s about it.
That might not sound worth it, but the last key filter option CoinRotator includes is by trend. If you are a trend-following trader or investor, you can easily find all the digital assets trending up, down, or “HODL” with a simple dropdown window.
The trend periods are broken down by 24h and 7d, but you can also filter by trend streak of 1-5, 5-10, 10-20, and 20+.
If you fancy yourself a momentum trader or just want a simple crypto screener to see what areas of the market are trending, the CoinRotator scanner is an excellent option to consider and very beginner-friendly.
Key Features
- Easy to use/Beginner-friendly
- Category breakdowns
- Focused on trends/momentum
altFins (Best for Traders)
For advanced traders with a specific trading strategy, there are few scanner options that will rival altFins. The scanner is a bit more challenging to learn and use, but it is incredibly advanced and will serve a variety of trading strategies.
Traders can filter based on performance, trading volume, trend, revenue, relative strength index (RSI), moving averages, candlestick and chart patterns, and countless other indicators.
The altFins scanner really is a crypto trader’s dream, especially considering you can set trading alerts and save all your custom filters as presets to easily apply in the future.
And as if that wasn’t enough, altFins also includes charts and offers its own technical analysis for potential trades. You’ll only have access to three charts for the free plan, but it’s still an exceptional resource.
Bottom line, if you are an active crypto trader looking for laser-sharp indicator-based market entry positions, altFins should be at the top of your crypto scanner list.
Key Features
- Advanced filters, including technical indicators (RSI, MAs, candlesticks, etc.)
- Category and trend breakdowns
- Includes charts and technical analysis
DappRadar (Best for DeFi)
Many crypto enthusiasts these days like to keep their focus on all the emerging DeFi projects, and DappRadar is one of the best tools for doing just that.
What makes DappRadar unique is its focus on DeFi apps by project. Each blockchain is listed at the top in an easy one-click tab so you can quickly filter through all the different crypto projects within each ecosystem.
Once you click on a project, you can also filter by games, DeFi, gambling, exchanges, collectibles, marketplaces, social, high-risk, and other filters specifically within that ecosystem.
For anyone hyper-focused on a specific blockchain, DappRadar makes monitoring new and old crypto projects about as easy as it gets.
A major caveat, however, is DappRadar doesn’t include many filter options beyond specific projects and categories.
The only additional filters it offers are balance, unique active wallets (UAW), and volume, which could be more than enough for many users, but it still falls short of other scanners with dozens of filter options.
Nevertheless, DappRadar is one of the best scanners to focus on the world of DeFi and decentralized applications, so if that interests you, you won’t regret checking it out.
Key Features
- Focused on blockchains and DeFi dapps
- Category breakdowns
- Unique active wallets filter
Conclusion: Best Crypto Scanners
After carefully walking through the long list of crypto scanners for this review, we believe CoinRotator is best for beginners and simple trend following, altFins is best for experienced traders, DappRadar is best for DeFi, and CoinMarketCap is the best overall.
Jumping into a service with dozens of filter options or other distracting bells and whistles can be overwhelming for beginners, so CoinRotator’s simple design will lend itself to anyone just getting started or using a simple trend-following strategy.
However, if you are an experienced trader looking for the most advanced scanner to filter various crypto assets based on specific technical indicators, there is no doubt you will find altFins to be an invaluable resource.
But if active crypto trading isn’t your thing and you just want to find the best up-and-coming dapps on all the up-and-coming blockchains, DappRadar will cut out all the noise by honing in on the niche world of DeFi.
And finally, if you aren’t laser-focused on active trading or DeFi and just want a high-level crypto scanner, you can’t go wrong with CoinMarketCap. With a healthy balance of user-friendly and advanced filtering options, CoinMarketCap’s scanner will be a powerful tool in anyone’s crypto arsenal.
What is the best overall crypto scanner?
CoinMarketCap because of its user-friendly design, crypto heat map, and advanced filter options.
What is the best crypto scanner for beginners?
CoinRotator because of its simple and aesthetic design.
What is the best crypto scanner for active traders?
altFins because of its advanced filters including technical indicators, categories, and trends.
What is the best crypto scanner for DeFi?
DappRadar because of its blockchain filter and focus on dapps.
