Market Capitalization
- Market cap is a cryptocurrency's total value: its current price multiplied by its circulating supply.
- It is the standard way to compare the relative size of assets — a coin priced in cents can be "larger" than one priced in hundreds of dollars.
- Market cap measures size and market perception, not the amount of money that has been invested in a project.
Market capitalization, or “market cap,” is a coin’s circulating supply multiplied by its current price. It is a simple way to size a cryptocurrency relative to others, similar to how the term is used for public companies, though crypto’s circulating-supply figures can be harder to verify than a company’s share count.
Why it matters
Market cap is often used as a rough proxy for how established or significant a project is, but it can be misleading on its own. A coin with a large stated supply and a low price can show a high market cap even with thin trading volume, so market cap should be read alongside liquidity and trading activity rather than in isolation.
Example
Rankings by market cap change constantly as prices move. You can see live, ranked market cap data for thousands of coins on our markets page.
This is educational information, not financial advice. Coingsty does not recommend buying or selling any asset.
Price is the current market price; circulating supply is the number of coins publicly available and trading.
BTC today: $64.24K × 20.04M ≈ $1.29T.
| Metric | Basis | Reflects |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | Price times circulating supply | Current market value |
| FDV | Price times maximum supply | Value if fully diluted |
How is market cap calculated?
Does a higher market cap mean a better investment?
What is the difference between market cap and fully diluted valuation?
Other glossary terms connected to this one.
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