KSM vs STX
Kusama and Stacks 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
KSM scores 103 of 250 and ranks 124th of 251. STX scores 118 and ranks 75th. STX leads by 15 points, which is a real gap, though small enough that one variable moving would close much of it. KSM takes 2 of the 25 variables, STX takes 14, and 9 are level.
No single variable separates KSM and STX 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, 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.
STX is valued at $697.8M against $90.6M for KSM, a 7.7x 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 | 2 | 3 | STX +1 | |
| Revenue Trend | 3 | 4 | STX +1 | |
| P/S Multiple | 4 | 4 | level | |
| Real Staking Yield | 5 | 7 | STX +2 |
Supply
| Supply Inflation | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Vesting Schedule | 6 | 5 | KSM +1 | |
| Circulating / FDV Ratio | 7 | 7 | level | |
| Buyback and Burn | 2 | 1 | KSM +1 |
Ownership
| Smart Money Flows | 4 | 5 | STX +1 | |
| Insider Selling | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Holder Concentration | 4 | 5 | STX +1 |
Traction
| TVL Trend | 3 | 4 | STX +1 | |
| Active Users | 3 | 4 | STX +1 | |
| Developer Activity | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Network Growth | 4 | 4 | level |
Position
| Market Share | 3 | 4 | STX +1 | |
| Competitive Moat | 4 | 6 | STX +2 | |
| Institutional Adoption | 3 | 4 | STX +1 | |
| Exchange Depth | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Social Mindshare | 4 | 5 | STX +1 |
Risk
| Regulatory Safety | 5 | 6 | STX +1 | |
| Catalyst Calendar | 3 | 5 | STX +2 | |
| BTC Alpha Potential | 4 | 5 | STX +1 | |
| Team Execution | 5 | 5 | level | |
| Treasury Runway | 5 | 5 | level |
Bars read outward from the centre: KSM to the left, STX 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
| KSM | STX | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.78 | $0.3727 |
| Market cap | $90.6M | $697.8M |
| Circulating | 100% | 100% |
| Dilution to full supply | 1x | 1x |
| Off all-time high | -99.23% | -90.4% |
| To recover the high | 129.9x | 10.4x |
| Total value locked | not published | $42.0M |
| Network | Kusama | Stacks |
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
KSM · WATCH
Polkadot parachain auctions and cross-chain interoperability; Kusama as experimental sandbox for new dApps.
High inflation from parachain rewards; limited DeFi TVL and developer activity vs. Ethereum network.
STX · WATCH
Nakamoto upgrade enabling Bitcoin finality; sBTC bringing Bitcoin liquidity to DeFi
Bitcoin L2 narrative crowded; TVL tiny; sBTC adoption limited by complexity
Common questions
- Is KSM or STX the better investment?
- On this framework STX scores higher: 118 against 103 of 250, and it is rated WATCH against WATCH. That is a ranking of fundamentals as recorded at the last scoring pass, not a price forecast, and KSM still wins 2 of the 25 individual variables against STX.
- What is the biggest difference between KSM and STX?
- 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, KSM or STX?
- KSM is valued at $90.6M and STX at $697.8M 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.