Glossary
Market Capitalization
16/04/2026
Market capitalization (market cap) is the total market value of a cryptocurrency, calculated as:
Market Cap = Current Price × Circulating Supply
It is the most widely used metric for ranking cryptocurrencies by size and comparing their relative scale.
Example
If a coin trades at $0.10 and has 10 billion coins in circulation, its market cap is $1 billion.
Market cap categories
| Category | Market cap range | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Large cap | > $10B | Bitcoin, Ethereum |
| Mid cap | $1B – $10B | Litecoin, Kaspa |
| Small cap | $100M – $1B | Many altcoins |
| Micro cap | < $100M | Most new coins |
Limitations
Market cap can be misleading:
- Circulating supply ≠ total supply — many coins have large locked or not-yet-mined supply
- Low liquidity coins — a small cap coin may have a high price but almost no real trading volume; the "market cap" is theoretical
- Fully diluted valuation (FDV) — uses total max supply instead of circulating supply; often much higher
Why miners track it
Market cap gives a quick signal of a coin's maturity and liquidity — important when deciding where to direct hashrate or how easily mined coins can be sold.
