← Glossary

Market cap

Also called: market capitalization

The current price multiplied by the number of units in circulation.

In practice

On a quote page it tells you the scale of the asset — a $1.2T market cap moves differently from a $6B one, because it takes far more money to move it.

What it is not

Not price times every coin that will ever exist — that larger number is the fully diluted valuation, and in crypto the gap between the two can be big. Also not money anyone actually paid: nobody bought the whole supply at today's price.