Market Cap
The total value of a digital asset’s circulating supply, calculated by multiplying its current price by the number of coins or tokens in circulation.
What is Market Cap?
Market capitalization, or market cap, is a key metric in the digital asset space that measures the total value of a cryptocurrency by multiplying its current market price by its circulating supply. For example, if Bitcoin (BTC) is priced at $60,000 with a circulating supply of 19 million coins, its market cap is $1.14 trillion. This metric, widely tracked on platforms like CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko, indicates a coin’s dominance, size, and perceived value relative to the broader market. As of September 2025, the total crypto market cap exceeds $2.5 trillion, with Bitcoin and Ethereum accounting for roughly 50% and 20%, respectively, per CoinMarketCap data.
Market cap helps investors assess a project’s scale and risk. Large-cap coins like BTC and ETH (market caps over $100 billion) are considered more stable, while small-cap altcoins (under $1 billion) are often more volatile but offer higher growth potential. For instance, Solana’s market cap grew from $10 billion in 2021 to over $80 billion in 2025, reflecting its DeFi and NFT adoption, as discussed on X. However, market cap can be misleading, as it doesn’t account for liquidity, token distribution, or locked supply, and manipulation via low-circulation tokens can inflate values.
Investors use market cap to compare assets and gauge market trends, with tools like DefiLlama or Glassnode providing deeper insights into on-chain activity and tokenomics. X posts often highlight market cap shifts during “altcoin seasons” or warn of overhyped low-cap projects prone to pump-and-dump schemes. Due diligence is advised to evaluate fundamentals beyond market cap alone.
Related Terms
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The variable and cumulative transaction fees on blockchains that complicate liquidity provision and trading in DeFi.
Sell Side
The portion of the order book listing aggregated sell orders at various price levels.
Dodd-Frank Act Stress Tests (DFAST)
Annual assessments by the Federal Reserve evaluating large banks' capital adequacy under hypothetical severe economic scenarios to ensure resilience.
Genesis Block
The initial block in a blockchain that establishes the foundation of the network and its digital asset.
Futarchy (Prediction Market)
A governance system using prediction markets to decide policies based on their predicted impact on a predefined metric.
ETH
ETH is the native digital asset of the Ethereum blockchain, used for transaction fees, staking, and as a medium of exchange in decentralized applications.