API3 vs BAL
API3 and Balancer scored on the same 25 variables, ranked against the same 251 tokens, with every gap between them shown.
Scoring pass 18 Sept 2026. Market snapshot 7 Oct 2026.
What separates them
API3 scores 99 of 250 and ranks 147th of 251. BAL scores 95 and ranks 167th. API3 leads by 4 points, which is inside the range where the individual variables matter more than the total. API3 takes 4 of the 25 variables, BAL takes 0, and 21 are level.
No single variable separates API3 and BAL by as much as 3 points. They are close on the framework's terms, which makes price, liquidity and the supply position below the only grounds for choosing.
Both score 3 or below on Protocol Revenue, Revenue Trend, Buyback and Burn, Smart Money Flows, TVL Trend, Active Users and 6 more. A weakness both sides share is not a reason to prefer either. It is a reason to check whether the category itself carries the problem.
API3 is valued at $45.0M against $9.1M for BAL, a 4.9x difference. The larger of the two also scores higher, so the market and the framework agree on the ordering here.
All 25 variables, head to head
Both tokens were scored by the same framework in the same pass, so the numbers are directly comparable. What a comparison adds over two separate pages is the gap: a 6 against a 6 is a non-event, a 9 against a 3 is the reason to hold one and not the other.
Cash flow
| Protocol Revenue | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Revenue Trend | 3 | 3 | level | |
| P/S Multiple | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Real Staking Yield | 4 | 4 | level |
Supply
| Supply Inflation | 5 | 4 | API3 +1 | |
| Vesting Schedule | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Circulating / FDV Ratio | 7 | 6 | API3 +1 | |
| Buyback and Burn | 3 | 3 | level |
Ownership
| Smart Money Flows | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Insider Selling | 4 | 4 | level | |
| Holder Concentration | 4 | 4 | level |
Traction
| TVL Trend | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Active Users | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Developer Activity | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Network Growth | 3 | 3 | level |
Position
| Market Share | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Competitive Moat | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Institutional Adoption | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Exchange Depth | 5 | 4 | API3 +1 | |
| Social Mindshare | 3 | 3 | level |
Risk
| Regulatory Safety | 6 | 6 | level | |
| Catalyst Calendar | 4 | 4 | level | |
| BTC Alpha Potential | 3 | 3 | level | |
| Team Execution | 4 | 4 | level | |
| Treasury Runway | 5 | 4 | API3 +1 |
Bars read outward from the centre: API3 to the left, BAL to the right. The side that leads a variable is filled. Each score is 1 to 10 against the same definition applied to all 251 rated tokens.
Market and supply
| API3 | BAL | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.3069 | $0.1309 |
| Market cap | $45.0M | $9.1M |
| Circulating | 78.7% | 72.6% |
| Dilution to full supply | 1.27x | 1.38x |
| Off all-time high | -97% | -99.82% |
| To recover the high | 33.3x | 555.6x |
| Total value locked | not published | $750.0M |
| Network | Ethereum | Ethereum |
Price, market cap and all-time high from the CoinGecko snapshot fetched 7 Oct 2026. Supply shares are derived from circulating and eventual supply counts, which do not move with price. The 25 scores come from the research pass dated 18 Sept 2026.
Catalyst and risk on each side
API3 · PASS
OEV Network capturing MEV from oracle updates and redistributing to dApps
Chainlink's dominance in integrations makes API3 a distant second-choice for most protocols
BAL · PASS
Balancer V3 relaunch with fee-switch and hooks architecture
BAL token buybacks via fee revenue are negligible vs inflation; veBAL bribe market in decline
Common questions
- Is API3 or BAL the better investment?
- On this framework API3 scores higher: 99 against 95 of 250, and it is rated PASS against PASS. That is a ranking of fundamentals as recorded at the last scoring pass, not a price forecast, and API3 still wins 4 of the 25 individual variables against BAL.
- What is the biggest difference between API3 and BAL?
- Nothing separates them by more than 2 points on any of the 25 variables, which is unusual and means the two are close substitutes on fundamentals.
- Which is bigger, API3 or BAL?
- API3 is valued at $45.0M and BAL at $9.1M on the latest market snapshot.
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Research and analysis, not investment advice. A higher score is one framework applied consistently to 251 tokens, not a prediction that one asset will outperform the other.