Glossary
Market Cap
A token's total market value — `price × circulating supply`. The standard metric for ranking crypto assets by size, though it can mislead for low-float tokens.
Market capitalization = current price × circulating supply. It estimates what the freely tradable portion of a token is collectively worth, and it is the number aggregators like CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap use to rank assets from Bitcoin down to the smallest altcoin. A larger market cap is usually read as a proxy for liquidity, maturity, and how much capital it would take to move the price.
The metric has real blind spots. Price is set at the margin by the last trade, so multiplying a thin, illiquid price by a large supply can print a market cap no one could ever actually realize by selling. This is why analysts pair market cap with FDV and circulating-supply figures: a token with a low float and huge locked allocations can show a modest market cap today while facing heavy dilution ahead.