Market cap, FDV and token supply explained
By the Ozelinx editorial team · Published · Updated · 7 min read
Key takeaways
- Market cap = price × circulating supply; it ranks coins by size, not by quality.
- Fully diluted valuation (FDV) = price × max (or total) supply; a large gap to market cap means many tokens are still to be released.
- Token unlocks and emissions add supply over time and can weigh on price.
- A low price per coin does not make a coin cheap; compare market caps instead.
Every coin page on Ozelinx shows market cap, fully diluted value and three different supply figures. They answer different questions, and mixing them up is one of the most common beginner mistakes.
Market capitalisation
Market cap = current price × circulating supply.
It measures the total value of the coins that are actually available to trade at today’s price. Data providers such as CoinGecko rank coins by market cap, which is why bitcoin and ether sit at the top of our top 100 list.
Market cap is a measure of size, not quality or safety. It also overstates how much money could be realised: if every holder tried to sell at once, the price would fall long before the market cap was paid out.
Three kinds of supply
- Circulating supply — coins that are publicly available and trading now. Data providers estimate this and exclude coins that are locked, held in treasuries or not yet released.
- Total supply — all coins that currently exist, minus any that have been verifiably burned, including locked or reserved coins that are not circulating.
- Max supply — the hard cap the protocol will ever allow. Bitcoin’s max supply is 21 million. Some assets, such as ether, have no fixed maximum, which we show as “not capped”.
Fully diluted valuation (FDV)
FDV = current price × max supply (or total supply if there is no max).
FDV shows the implied value if every token that will ever exist were circulating at today’s price. When FDV is several times higher than market cap, a large share of tokens is still locked — often for the team, early investors or ecosystem funds — and will be released over time.
Unlocks, emissions and burns
New tokens enter circulation through vesting unlocks (scheduled releases to insiders), emissions (mining or staking rewards) and treasury spending. More supply needs more demand to keep the price stable, so large unlocks are worth knowing about in advance. Projects publish vesting schedules in their documentation; check the official links on each coin page.
Some protocols burn tokens — permanently remove them — through fees or buybacks, which can offset emissions.
Volume-to-market-cap
The 24-hour trading volume divided by market cap shows how actively a coin trades relative to its size. Very low ratios can mean thin liquidity, so large orders move the price more. Unusually high ratios can mean heavy speculation, and on some smaller exchanges reported volume may be inflated. Our coin pages show this ratio under Market stats and list the markets with the most volume.
All-time high and distance from ATH
The all-time high (ATH) is the highest price ever recorded on tracked markets, and “from ATH” shows how far the current price sits below it. It is useful context for volatility, but a coin far below its ATH is not automatically cheap — the market’s view of its value may simply have changed.
Putting it together
When you look at a coin, compare market cap with similar projects, check how much supply is still to come (FDV vs market cap), and look at volume and where it trades. For price behaviour, read how to read candlestick charts; for terms you don’t recognise, see the glossary.
Frequently asked questions
How is crypto market cap calculated?
Market capitalisation is the current price multiplied by the circulating supply — the number of coins or tokens available in the market. A coin priced at $2 with 500 million coins circulating has a market cap of $1 billion.
What is the difference between market cap and FDV?
Market cap uses circulating supply. Fully diluted valuation uses the maximum supply (or total supply if there is no maximum), showing what the project would be worth at today's price if every token existed and circulated.
Is a coin priced under $1 cheap?
Not necessarily. Price per coin depends on how many coins exist. A $0.01 coin with 100 trillion coins has a larger market cap than a $50,000 coin with 10,000 coins. Compare market caps, not unit prices.
This guide is general information, not financial advice. Crypto assets are volatile and you can lose all the money you invest. See our risk disclaimer.