AR vs SHDW
Arweave and Shadow Token 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
AR scores 140 of 250 and ranks 32nd of 251. SHDW scores 103 and ranks 124th. AR leads by 37 points, which is a wide enough margin that the framework is not ambivalent. AR takes 22 of the 25 variables, SHDW takes 1, and 2 are level.
The framework rates AR HOLD and SHDW WATCH. Two tokens close enough to compare do not have to land in the same band, and where they do not, the divergence table below is where the split comes from.
4 variables separate them by 3 points or more. AR is clear on Circulating / FDV Ratio (9 against 5), Supply Inflation (8 against 5) and Vesting Schedule (8 against 5).
Both score 3 or below on Buyback and Burn. 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.
AR is valued at $274.9M against $5.3M for SHDW, a 51.8x 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 | 5 | 3 | AR +2 | |
| Revenue Trend | 5 | 4 | AR +1 | |
| P/S Multiple | 5 | 4 | AR +1 | |
| Real Staking Yield | 4 | 4 | level |
Supply
| Supply Inflation | 8 | 5 | AR +3 | |
| Vesting Schedule | 8 | 5 | AR +3 | |
| Circulating / FDV Ratio | 9 | 5 | AR +4 | |
| Buyback and Burn | 1 | 2 | SHDW +1 |
Ownership
| Smart Money Flows | 6 | 4 | AR +2 | |
| Insider Selling | 6 | 5 | AR +1 | |
| Holder Concentration | 5 | 4 | AR +1 |
Traction
| TVL Trend | 5 | 4 | AR +1 | |
| Active Users | 5 | 4 | AR +1 | |
| Developer Activity | 7 | 5 | AR +2 | |
| Network Growth | 6 | 4 | AR +2 |
Position
| Market Share | 5 | 4 | AR +1 | |
| Competitive Moat | 7 | 4 | AR +3 | |
| Institutional Adoption | 4 | 3 | AR +1 | |
| Exchange Depth | 4 | 3 | AR +1 | |
| Social Mindshare | 5 | 4 | AR +1 |
Risk
| Regulatory Safety | 6 | 5 | AR +1 | |
| Catalyst Calendar | 6 | 4 | AR +2 | |
| BTC Alpha Potential | 4 | 4 | level | |
| Team Execution | 7 | 5 | AR +2 | |
| Treasury Runway | 7 | 5 | AR +2 |
Bars read outward from the centre: AR to the left, SHDW 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
| AR | SHDW | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.19 | $0.0314 |
| Market cap | $274.9M | $5.3M |
| Circulating | 99.5% | 100% |
| Dilution to full supply | 1.01x | 1x |
| Off all-time high | -95.3% | -98.9% |
| To recover the high | 21.3x | 90.9x |
| Total value locked | $65.00B | not published |
| Network | Arweave | Solana |
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
AR · HOLD
AO (Actor Oriented) parallel computing layer turning Arweave into compute network
Storage endowment model relies on AR price assumptions; 83% below ATH; small network
SHDW · WATCH
GenesysGo storage demand from Solana network growth and potential SHDW token utility expansion.
Dependence on Solana network health and competition from other decentralized storage solutions.
Common questions
- Is AR or SHDW the better investment?
- On this framework AR scores higher: 140 against 103 of 250, and it is rated HOLD against WATCH. That is a ranking of fundamentals as recorded at the last scoring pass, not a price forecast, and AR still wins 22 of the 25 individual variables against SHDW.
- What is the biggest difference between AR and SHDW?
- Circulating / FDV Ratio. AR scores 9 of 10 there and SHDW scores 5, a gap of 4 points on a single variable.
- Which is bigger, AR or SHDW?
- AR is valued at $274.9M and SHDW at $5.3M 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.