GlossaryBeginner
Market Cap
The total value of all circulating units of a cryptocurrency, used to gauge its relative size.
Market capitalization, or market cap, is calculated by multiplying a cryptocurrency's current price by the number of units in circulation. It is commonly used as a rough way to compare the relative size of different cryptocurrencies.
Market cap reflects circulating supply and price at a given moment; it is not a measure of the total cash that has flowed into an asset, and it can change quickly as price moves.
Examples
- A cryptocurrency with a higher price but a smaller circulating supply can have a lower market cap than one with a lower price and larger supply.
- Market cap rankings are often used to get a general sense of how cryptocurrencies compare in size to one another.