Crypto Bubbles Chart Explained: How to Read It
What a bubble chart shows, how to read Stratalla's bubble view step by step, the most common misreadings, and how to tell a market-wide move from a single-coin one.
A table with hundreds of coins is hard to take in at a glance. A crypto bubbles chart turns that table into a picture. Every coin becomes a circle, and the size and colour of each circle stand for a number.
This guide explains how a bubble chart works, how to read Stratalla's version step by step, and the most common ways people misread it. Despite the name, the chart has nothing to do with a "bubble" in the sense of an overheated market. The bubbles are simply shapes on a screen.
What is a crypto bubbles chart?
A bubble chart is a way of drawing many items at once. Each coin gets one bubble. Instead of reading a number in a column, you see it as a shape.
Two things carry the information. The size of a bubble shows how large a number is, so a bigger bubble means a bigger value. The colour shows a second piece of information, such as whether a move went up or down, or which group a value falls into.
Some people call this kind of picture a crypto market map, because it puts the whole market on one screen. The idea is the same: trade precise numbers for a quick overall impression, then look closer where something stands out.
Why does it help to see the whole market at once?
A sorted list is good at answering one question, such as "which coin moved the most?" It is less good at showing patterns. When everything sits in rows, it is hard to notice that most of the list is moving the same way.
A bubble chart makes those patterns visible. A screen that is mostly green looks very different from one that is mostly red, and a single huge bubble among small ones jumps out straight away.
That overview is useful as context. A coin's move means something different when every other coin is doing the same thing than when it is moving alone. The picture doesn't explain why, but it shows where to start asking.
How do you read Stratalla's bubble view step by step?
Stratalla's crypto bubbles page shows each coin as a bubble, and the free plan includes it. Reading it comes down to a few steps.
- Choose what the bubbles measure. The options are swing % over a 20, 50 or 300 day window, how many days old the current swing is (for each window), the volume ratio, or the volume category.
- Read the colour. What colour means depends on the measure you chose. The sections below cover each one.
- Read the size. A bigger bubble means a bigger value for the chosen measure.
- Narrow the set if it helps. You can filter to your favourites, pick specific coins, or create your own categories, meaning groups of coins you define.
- Click a bubble. Clicking shows that coin's details, so the picture becomes a starting point for a closer look.
Stratalla doesn't tell readers what to buy or sell, and it doesn't predict prices. The bubble view describes what has already happened.
What do the swing % bubbles show?
A swing measure describes how far a coin has moved from its last structural low or high, compared with its own history. A structural low is a clear turning point where the price stopped falling and started rising, and a structural high is the opposite.
Green bubbles have risen from their last swing low. Red bubbles have fallen from their last swing high. The size of the bubble reflects how big that move is. Broadly, a shorter window shows more recent moves, and a longer one shows the bigger picture.
What do the swing age colours show?
Swing age is how many days old the current swing is. Here the colour runs from green (only a few days old) through blue, yellow and orange to red (more than 60 days).
In this mode, red does not mean a coin has fallen. It only means the current swing has lasted a long time.
What do the volume bubbles show?
Volume is the amount of a coin traded over a period. In the volume modes, colour and size reflect volume compared with the coin's own recent average, grouped as Low, Medium, High or Significant.
Because each coin is compared with itself, a small coin can show Significant volume while a large coin shows Low. The question being answered is "is this unusual for this coin?", not "which coin trades the most?"
What are the most common misreadings?
A bubble chart is quick to read, which also makes it quick to misread. Three mistakes come up often.
Does a big bubble mean a good coin?
No. A big bubble means a big value for whatever is being measured, such as a large move from the last swing low or high. It says nothing about the quality of the project, its team or its long-term prospects.
A large move can come from real news, from thin trading, or from a sharp fall. The size shows how much happened, not whether it was good.
Is a green or red bubble a signal?
No. In swing % mode, colour shows the direction of the measured move: up from a low or down from a high. It is a description of the past, not an instruction.
Colour also changes meaning between modes. Red is a fall in swing % mode, an old swing in swing age mode, and a level of volume in volume mode. Checking which measure is selected before reading anything into the colours avoids most confusion.
Does one snapshot show a trend?
No. The chart shows the market at one moment. A screen full of green bubbles today says nothing certain about tomorrow.
Looking at the same view on different days, or comparing the 20, 50 and 300 day windows, gives a fuller picture than a single glance. Even then, the chart describes what has happened, not what will happen.
Is a move market-wide, or just one coin?
This is one of the most useful questions a bubble chart can help with. A few patterns are worth thinking about.
- Most bubbles share one colour. When nearly everything is green, or nearly everything is red, the move is likely market-wide. One coin's move may simply reflect the whole market.
- One bubble stands apart. A large bubble of one colour among small or opposite-coloured bubbles suggests something specific to that coin.
- Volume adds context. Switching to a volume mode shows whether the move came with unusual trading compared with the coin's own average, or on quiet trading.
- Groups make comparisons easier. Your own categories let you check whether a set of related coins moved together or one went its own way.
Once something stands out, clicking the bubble opens the coin's details. For a sorted, side-by-side view of the same kinds of measures, the crypto screener lists coins by swing measures, volume category, market cap tier and distance from the all-time high.
For anyone still learning the terms used here, such as swing lows, volume and market cap, the lessons in the crypto academy cover the basics, risk and planning. A bubble chart is easier to read once those ideas are familiar.
This article is for education only. It isn't financial advice, and nothing here recommends buying or selling any asset. Crypto prices can fall sharply, and you can lose money. Consider your own situation, and speak to a qualified adviser if you need personal guidance.