How to Get Top ERC20 Tokens by Market Cap

Introduction

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to discover and filter ERC20 tokens using the Moralis API. You can sort tokens by market cap, trading volume, price change, and other metrics. This is essential for building token discovery platforms, market dashboards, or trading screeners. We’ll use the following Moralis API endpoint:

Token Search - Search and filter tokens by various metrics

Prerequisites

Node.js v18+ installed
A Moralis API key (get one free)

Step 1: Set Up Your Project

Create a new directory for your project and initialize it:

mkdir get-top-tokens && cd get-top-tokens
npm init -y

Step 2: Create the Script

Create a file called index.js and add the following code:

// index.js
const API_KEY = 'YOUR_API_KEY';

async function getTopTokens() {
  const response = await fetch(
    'https://deep-index.moralis.io/api/v2.2/discovery/tokens',
    {
      method: 'POST',
      headers: {
        'X-API-Key': API_KEY,
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
      },
      body: JSON.stringify({
        chains: ['eth'],
        sortBy: {
          metric: 'marketCap',
          type: 'DESC',
        },
        limit: 20,
      }),
    }
  );

  const data = await response.json();
  console.log(JSON.stringify(data, null, 2));
}

getTopTokens();

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your actual Moralis API key.

Step 3: Run the Script

Execute the script to get top tokens:

node index.js

Example Response

{
  "page": 1,
  "page_size": 20,
  "result": [
    {
      "token_address": "0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2",
      "name": "Wrapped Ether",
      "symbol": "WETH",
      "decimals": 18,
      "logo": "https://cdn.moralis.io/eth/0xc02aaa39b223fe8d0a0e5c4f27ead9083c756cc2.png",
      "market_cap": 420000000000,
      "fully_diluted_valuation": 420000000000,
      "price_usd": 3500.50,
      "price_24h_percent_change": 2.5,
      "price_7d_percent_change": 5.2,
      "volume_24h_usd": 15000000000,
      "holders": 7500000,
      "total_supply": "120000000",
      "total_supply_formatted": "120000000",
      "verified_contract": true,
      "possible_spam": false,
      "security_score": 85
    }
  ]
}

Understanding the Response

Field	Description
`token_address`	Token contract address
`name` / `symbol`	Token name and symbol
`market_cap`	Current market capitalization in USD
`fully_diluted_valuation`	FDV based on max supply
`price_usd`	Current price in USD
`price_24h_percent_change`	24-hour price change percentage
`price_7d_percent_change`	7-day price change percentage
`volume_24h_usd`	24-hour trading volume in USD
`holders`	Number of unique holders
`verified_contract`	Whether contract is verified
`possible_spam`	Whether flagged as spam
`security_score`	Token security score (0-100)

Next Steps

Get Token Price - Get current token prices
Get Token Pairs - Find trading pairs
Build a DEX Screener - Create a trading dashboard
API Reference - Full API documentation

Introduction

Getting Started

Pricing & Resources

Tutorials & Guides

How to Get Top ERC20 Tokens by Market Cap

Introduction

Prerequisites

Step 1: Set Up Your Project

Step 2: Create the Script

Step 3: Run the Script

Example Response

Understanding the Response

Next Steps

​Introduction

​Prerequisites

​Step 1: Set Up Your Project

​Step 2: Create the Script

​Step 3: Run the Script

​Example Response

​Understanding the Response

​Next Steps

Introduction

Prerequisites

Step 1: Set Up Your Project

Step 2: Create the Script

Step 3: Run the Script

Example Response

Understanding the Response

Next Steps