Glossary
Market Capitalization
Market capitalization is the total value of a cryptocurrency's circulating supply, found by multiplying its current price by the number of coins in circulation. It is a common way to gauge and rank the relative size of one crypto asset against another.
The close-up. Market capitalization — often shortened to "market cap" — is a single number built from two inputs: the current price of a coin and its circulating supply. Multiply the two and you get the total market value of every coin currently in circulation. Because it folds supply into the picture, market cap can tell a different story than price alone: a low-priced coin with a very large supply can carry a larger market cap than a high-priced coin with few coins in circulation.
The wide shot. Analysts use market cap mainly for scale and comparison. It underpins the tiers people casually reference as large-cap, mid-cap, and small-cap, and it drives how assets are ordered on ranking tables and across most coin listings. The idea is borrowed from traditional equity markets, where the same math sizes up companies.
Read it with care. Market cap is an estimate, not the amount of money invested in an asset, and not a figure you could redeem by selling. It also depends heavily on which supply number is used — circulating, total, or fully diluted — so the same asset can show different caps depending on the method. Thin liquidity, locked tokens, and uncertain supply data can all distort it. Treat it as one lens among several, and cross-check with tools and other metrics. This is informational only — always do your own research.