What is market cap? Why a coin's price alone can mislead you
Market cap, circulating supply and fully diluted value explained, with a quick test for "this coin could hit $10" claims.
New investors often assume a coin priced at a few cents is "cheap" and has more room to grow than one priced in the thousands. Price alone doesn't tell you that. Market capitalization does.
The formula
Market cap = price × circulating supply.
A coin priced at $0.25 with 36 billion coins in circulation has a market cap of $9 billion. A coin priced at $250 with 15 million coins has a market cap of $3.75 billion. The cheaper-looking coin is worth more than twice as much in total.
Why it matters
For a coin's price to double, its market cap has to double. That means the market has to value the whole network twice as highly, which gets harder the larger it already is. Our market-cap calculator shows what any coin would cost at another coin's size.
Reality check: before believing that a low-priced coin "could reach $10," multiply $10 by its circulating supply. If the answer is larger than Bitcoin's market cap, or the whole crypto market, the claim needs a very good explanation.
Three supply numbers
- Circulating supply: coins that exist and can trade now. Used for market cap.
- Total supply: coins created so far, including any locked or held by the project.
- Max supply: the most that can ever exist, if there's a limit. Bitcoin's is 21 million. Some coins, such as ether and dogecoin, have no fixed maximum.
Fully diluted value
Fully diluted value (FDV) is price × max supply. When FDV is much larger than market cap, many more coins are scheduled to be released, often to early investors and the team. Those "unlocks" can push the price down as new supply hits the market. Our coin pages show FDV where a max supply exists.
Other things market cap doesn't show
- Liquidity: a coin with a big market cap but little daily trading volume can be hard to sell without moving the price.
- Concentration: if a few wallets hold most of the supply, their selling can swamp the market.
- Stablecoins: USDT and USDC have huge market caps because many tokens exist, but their price is meant to stay at $1. Their market cap measures size, not growth potential.
See current market caps for the top 100 coins on our markets page.
This guide is for general education and isn't financial, investment, legal or tax advice. Crypto is volatile and you can lose money. Facts were checked as of the update date above; rules and fees change.