Market Capitalization (Market Cap)
Total value of all coins in circulation, calculated as price times circulating supply
What is Market Capitalization?
Market capitalization (market cap) is the total value of a cryptocurrency, calculated by multiplying the current price by the circulating supply. It's the primary metric used to rank and compare cryptocurrencies by size.
Market cap categories: ā¢ Large Cap: >$10 billion (BTC, ETH, etc.) - Generally more stable ā¢ Mid Cap: $1-10 billion - Balance of stability and growth potential ā¢ Small Cap: $100M-$1B - Higher risk, higher potential reward ā¢ Micro Cap: <$100M - Very high risk, potential for 10-100x gains ā¢ Nano Cap: <$10M - Extremely speculative
Important note: Market cap doesn't equal the actual money invested in a cryptocurrency - it's a theoretical value based on current price.
Formula
Market Cap = Current Price Ć Circulating Supply
š” Example
If a coin has 100 million tokens in circulation and trades at $2, its market cap is $200 million. A 10x price increase would require $2 billion market cap - easier for a micro cap than for Bitcoin.
How to Use Market Capitalization
- 1Comparing relative size of different cryptocurrencies
- 2Assessing potential for price appreciation (smaller = more room to grow)
- 3Evaluating investment risk (larger = generally more stable)
- 4Calculating potential returns based on realistic market cap targets
ā” Pro Tips
- ā¢Never compare coins by price alone - a $0.01 coin can be more "expensive" than BTC based on market cap
- ā¢Look at fully diluted market cap for coins with large unreleased supply
- ā¢Use market cap to set realistic price targets
- ā¢Filter by market cap in our screener to find gems in your risk category
Try It in Our Screener
See Market Capitalization in action with real cryptocurrency data.
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