What does "decimals" actually mean?

Tokens have **no native fractional values** on-chain. Everything is stored as a uint256 integer of the **smallest unit**, and `decimals` tells the UI how many places to move the decimal point when displaying it. Ether uses 18 decimals, so 1 ETH on-chain is stored as `1000000000000000000` (1 followed by 18 zeros). USDC uses 6, so 1 USDC is stored as `1000000`. **Always read `decimals()` before formatting an amount** - assuming 18 when the token uses 6 will display a number a trillion times too big.

Why do decimals matter for transactions?

When you call `transfer(recipient, amount)`, `amount` is the **raw uint256 value** the contract subtracts from your balance. If you want to send "5 USDC" you must pass `5 * 10**6 = 5000000`, not `5` and not `5 * 10**18`. Sending the wrong scale is one of the most common ways to **accidentally send a million tokens** or fail a transaction. Every wallet and dApp multiplies by `10**decimals` for you, but **scripts and contracts must do it explicitly**.

Is totalSupply the same as circulating supply?

**No.** `totalSupply()` is the **on-chain figure**: the sum of all balances the contract is currently tracking. It includes tokens **locked in vesting contracts, treasury wallets, burn addresses, bridges, and liquidity pools**. Circulating supply is an off-chain estimate of how many are **freely tradeable** - CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko publish their own numbers based on disclosure from the project. The two often differ by 30 to 70 percent. A token reading "100M total supply" on this tool may have only 40M circulating.

How do I tell if a token is legitimate?

Cross-check three things: **(1) the address itself** - get it from the project's official site, docs, or a trusted list like CoinGecko or Token Lists, never from a Telegram DM or a search-engine ad; **(2) the decoded name and symbol** match what you expect; **(3) the contract is verified on the explorer** (Etherscan shows a green checkmark). The view-on-explorer link in this tool takes you straight there. If the source code is unverified, that is a **red flag** but not always proof of a scam.

How do scam tokens fool people?

Three common tricks: **(1) Symbol squatting** - they deploy a contract literally named "USDC" or "WETH" at a different address. The decoded symbol matches but the address does not, so always compare the address. **(2) Honeypots** - `transfer` works for buying but reverts for selling, locking the buyer in. This tool cannot detect that, but services like Honeypot.is or GoPlus can. **(3) Tiny decimals or weird totalSupply** - a token with 0 decimals and a supply of 4 looks suspicious. The warnings list highlights non-standard returns.

Can the same token exist on multiple chains?

**Yes, and it usually does.** USDC has separate native contracts on Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and many more. They share the symbol and decimals but each has its own address and supply, and balances do **not** automatically move between chains - you need a **bridge** for that. Switching the chain bar in this tool with the same address loaded re-queries each network so you can see exactly which deployments exist.

Why do some tokens use 6 decimals (USDC) and others 18 (most ERC-20s)?

**18 decimals** matches Ether and became the default because it keeps math consistent across the EVM. **6 decimals** matches the smallest USD subunit (a millionth of a dollar, well below a real-world cent) and was inherited from Tether (USDT), which Circle then copied for USDC. Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) uses **8 decimals** to match BTC's satoshi. There is **no standard requirement** - any uint8 from 0 to 255 is legal, and the contract is the only source of truth.

What is the difference between name() and symbol()?

**`name()`** returns the **full human-readable name** ("USD Coin", "Wrapped Ether", "Dai Stablecoin"). **`symbol()`** returns the **short ticker** used in wallets and exchanges ("USDC", "WETH", "DAI"). Both are advisory strings, set when the contract was deployed and **immutable** after that on most contracts. They have no enforced uniqueness, which is why scam tokens can reuse the symbol of a real one. The **address remains the only true identifier**.

Why do some old tokens (MKR, ZRX) return weird name or symbol values?

Before the ERC-20 standard was finalized, several early tokens - most famously **MakerDAO's MKR** and **0x's ZRX** - encoded `name` and `symbol` as `bytes32` (a fixed 32-byte string padded with NUL bytes) instead of the dynamic `string` type the spec eventually settled on. This tool **detects both encodings**: it first tries the ABI string layout, and if that does not parse, it falls back to bytes32 and trims the NUL padding. That is why MKR and ZRX still display correctly here.

YourDevToolsPro

ERC-20 / Token Info Lookup

Paste a contract address, pick a chain, get name, symbol, decimals, and total supply straight from the blockchain.

LiveRuns in your browser

Paste a contract address and pick a chain. The server queries the four standard ERC-20 read methods and shows the decoded name, symbol, decimals, and total supply with an explorer link. Works on Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, and BSC.

How it works

The server fires four parallel eth_call requests to the chosen chain's public RPC for name, symbol, decimals, and totalSupply. Responses are decoded by hand (no ethers/viem) with a bytes32 fallback for old-school tokens like MKR and ZRX. Results are cached for one hour per chain:address.

What this tool does

Paste an ERC-20 token contract address, pick a chain, and we read the four standard read-only methods directly from the blockchain: `name()`, `symbol()`, `decimals()`, and `totalSupply()`. You get the human-readable name, ticker, decimal precision, and total supply formatted with thousand separators, plus a one-click link to the block explorer.

There is no API key and no wallet connect. The lookup runs on the server through a public JSON-RPC endpoint for each chain, so you can verify any token on Ethereum, Optimism, Arbitrum, Base, Polygon, or BSC without installing anything.

How to use it

Paste a contract address in the input field. It must be `0x` followed by 40 hexadecimal characters (the standard Ethereum address format).
Pick the chain the token lives on. The same address can exist on multiple chains with different totals (e.g. USDC on Ethereum vs USDC on Polygon).
Click "Look up". The server fires four parallel `eth_call` requests to the chain RPC and decodes the responses.
Read the result panel: name ("USD Coin"), symbol ("USDC"), decimals (6), total supply (formatted), plus the raw uint256 amount for power users.
Click "View on explorer" to open the contract on Etherscan, Arbiscan, BaseScan, PolygonScan, BscScan, or Optimistic Etherscan.
Use the sample chips (USDC, USDT, WETH, DAI on Ethereum) if you just want to see how the output looks.
Switching the chain bar after a successful lookup re-queries the same address on the new chain, which is the fastest way to compare a multi-chain token.

When this is useful

Six common situations where reading a token contract pays off:

Before sending tokens to an address you copied from somewhere: confirm the symbol and decimals match what you expect (a scam token can be named "USDC" but live at a different address).
Picking the right asset on a DEX or aggregator: paste the contract you found in the project's docs and check that name and symbol match. The address is the only thing that uniquely identifies a token.
Adding a token to a wallet that does not auto-detect it: most wallets need name, symbol, and decimals as inputs. This tool gives you all three from the on-chain source of truth.
Comparing the same token across chains: USDC on Ethereum, Polygon, and Base are separate contracts with separate supplies. Read each one to see the per-chain footprint.
Auditing a token your contract is about to interact with: total supply, decimals, and the warning list flag the obvious "this is not a standard ERC-20" cases (proxy contracts, non-standard returns, EOAs).
Listing a token in a UI or analytics tool: pull canonical metadata once, cache it, and avoid hardcoding wrong values from a token list.

Questions and answers

ERC-20 is a smart contract standard on Ethereum-compatible chains that defines a small set of functions any fungible token must expose: `transfer`, `balanceOf`, `approve`, `allowance`, plus the read-only metadata `name`, `symbol`, and `decimals`. Because every ERC-20 speaks the same interface, wallets, exchanges, and DeFi apps can support any new token without code changes. The standard was finalized in late 2017 and is now reused on Polygon, BSC, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, and every other EVM chain.

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ERC-20 / Token Info Lookup

Paste a contract address, pick a chain, get name, symbol, decimals, and total supply straight from the blockchain.

LiveRuns in your browser

ERC-20 / Token Info Lookup

How it works

What this tool does

How to use it

Paste a contract address in the input field. It must be `0x` followed by 40 hexadecimal characters (the standard Ethereum address format).
Pick the chain the token lives on. The same address can exist on multiple chains with different totals (e.g. USDC on Ethereum vs USDC on Polygon).
Click "Look up". The server fires four parallel `eth_call` requests to the chain RPC and decodes the responses.
Read the result panel: name ("USD Coin"), symbol ("USDC"), decimals (6), total supply (formatted), plus the raw uint256 amount for power users.
Click "View on explorer" to open the contract on Etherscan, Arbiscan, BaseScan, PolygonScan, BscScan, or Optimistic Etherscan.
Use the sample chips (USDC, USDT, WETH, DAI on Ethereum) if you just want to see how the output looks.
Switching the chain bar after a successful lookup re-queries the same address on the new chain, which is the fastest way to compare a multi-chain token.

When this is useful

Six common situations where reading a token contract pays off:

Before sending tokens to an address you copied from somewhere: confirm the symbol and decimals match what you expect (a scam token can be named "USDC" but live at a different address).
Picking the right asset on a DEX or aggregator: paste the contract you found in the project's docs and check that name and symbol match. The address is the only thing that uniquely identifies a token.
Adding a token to a wallet that does not auto-detect it: most wallets need name, symbol, and decimals as inputs. This tool gives you all three from the on-chain source of truth.
Comparing the same token across chains: USDC on Ethereum, Polygon, and Base are separate contracts with separate supplies. Read each one to see the per-chain footprint.
Auditing a token your contract is about to interact with: total supply, decimals, and the warning list flag the obvious "this is not a standard ERC-20" cases (proxy contracts, non-standard returns, EOAs).
Listing a token in a UI or analytics tool: pull canonical metadata once, cache it, and avoid hardcoding wrong values from a token list.