The cemetery can be theatrical. The numbers need labels.
This page defines how Crypto Graveyard should talk about values once real burials exist. The key rule is simple: peak observed value, estimated liquidation value, documented cost, and tax loss are different things.
Tax-loss verification
Never
Outside site scope
Peak observed value
Notional
Story metric
Liquidation value
Estimated
Liquidity-aware
Documentation
Tiered
Evidence labels
Metric dictionary
The site can be playful in tone while still being disciplined about the difference between observed, estimated, documented, and not-determined values.
Entertainment metric
Formula / rule
Highest observed wallet balance × market reference price
The largest notional value the observed wallet appears to have held during the selected period. This is not the same as what the person paid or what they could actually sell for.
Harder estimate
Formula / rule
Modeled proceeds after liquidity, slippage, depth, and fees
A future advanced metric that asks what the position might realistically have sold for at a point in time. This needs historical liquidity data, not just a chart price.
Event estimate
Formula / rule
Estimated value immediately before the burial transfer
The estimated market or liquidation value when the token was sent to the cemetery. For truly illiquid tokens, this may be near-zero or indeterminable.
Story metric
Formula / rule
Peak observed value − burial value
A dramatic before-and-after number for leaderboards and storytelling. It is intentionally separate from documented acquisition cost and tax treatment.
Private-review tier
Formula / rule
User-submitted records reviewed against chain history
A future evidence tier based on exchange statements, transaction exports, or other records. Even then, Crypto Graveyard should not call it a verified deductible tax loss.
Not provided
Formula / rule
Outside Crypto Graveyard’s determination
Tax treatment depends on the taxpayer, facts, records, law, and professional advice. The site should never display a trophy or certificate as tax verification.
The real system should reconstruct the wallet story first, then attach market data, then label the result. That order prevents spectacular nonsense.
Step 1
Confirm chain, contract or mint address, token decimals, symbol, and whether migrations, wrappers, rebases, or reflection mechanics exist.
Step 2
Track incoming and outgoing transfers over time instead of multiplying the final donated quantity by the historic highest price.
Step 3
Use a transparent hierarchy of reputable exchange trades, executable DEX liquidity, aggregators, and documented fallback estimates.
Step 4
Label chart-price math separately from liquidation estimates that account for market depth, slippage, and fees.
Step 5
Show what is sample, on-chain observed, market referenced, user documented, estimated, unknown, or not determined.
Confidence tiers
A future coin page can show these next to every value so users know whether they are looking at sample data, chain facts, price estimates, private records, or uncertainty.
Prototype only
Fictional data used to design the site before real wallets, transfers, or market feeds are connected.
Public chain data
Token quantities, timestamps, and transfers that can be read from a blockchain explorer or indexer.
Price source attached
Value estimates using a stated exchange, DEX pool, aggregator, block, timestamp, or price methodology.
Private evidence
Participant-provided records that support acquisition cost or chain-of-custody, reviewed without publishing sensitive documents.
No reliable value
Used when liquidity, market data, ownership continuity, or token mechanics are too unclear for a responsible estimate.
Gradual accumulation
Bad shortcut: Using final token quantity × highest historic price
Better label: Reconstruct balance intervals so the wallet only gets credit for tokens it actually held at each price point.
Thin liquidity
Bad shortcut: Treating a tiny DEX trade as proof the entire bag was worth millions
Better label: Display peak notional value separately from estimated liquidation value after modeled price impact.
Transferred wallet history
Bad shortcut: Assuming the current signer owned the wallet through every historical transfer
Better label: Phrase public claims around the wallet unless separate documentation supports person-level continuity.
Worthless token
Bad shortcut: Calling an illiquid token a verified zero-value tax loss
Better label: Label the burial value as near-zero, unavailable, or indeterminable without determining tax treatment.
The public leaderboard should say “peak observed wallet value,” “round trip,” “documented acquisition cost,” or “burial value” depending on what is actually known. It should not collapse all of those into “loss.”
Use
Peak observed notional value
Use
Estimated liquidation value
Use
Documented acquisition cost
Avoid
Verified tax loss
Avoid
Guaranteed write-off
Avoid
Charitable donation receipt
Implementation note
For the sample site, this is public education. For the real product, the same labels can drive reviewer checklists, coin profile badges, certificate fields, and award eligibility.