FDV vs Market Cap

Glossary · Whales & On-Chain

Fully diluted valuation is the price times the maximum supply — what the project would be worth if every token that will ever exist were circulating. Market cap uses only circulating supply. The gap between them is future supply waiting to unlock, and a large gap means today's price is being set on a fraction of the tokens.

"A $500M market cap with a $5B FDV is a coin where 90% of the supply is still in someone's drawer, and the drawer opens on a schedule."

Take a token at $2 with 250 million circulating and one billion maximum: market cap $500M, FDV $2B, so three-quarters of the supply is yet to come. For the price to hold as that supply unlocks, demand has to quadruple. Low-float, high-FDV launches — a tiny circulating share priced at a large valuation — have a poor record after their first cliffs for this arithmetic reason, and the pattern was common enough in 2024-25 to become a cliché.

How to read it: the ratio of market cap to FDV is a float share; below 20% means the price is a rumour about a much larger supply. Check the unlock schedule for when the gap closes and treat the coin's chart as a forward supply curve, not a demand story. Our coin index carries both numbers for every perp with a page.

Market cap and supply on every coin page

Related jargon

Questions

What is FDV vs Market Cap in crypto trading?

Fully diluted valuation is the price times the maximum supply — what the project would be worth if every token that will ever exist were circulating. Market cap uses only circulating supply. The gap between them is future supply waiting to unlock, and a large gap means today's price is being set on a fraction of the tokens.

How would a trader say it?

A $500M market cap with a $5B FDV is a coin where 90% of the supply is still in someone's drawer, and the drawer opens on a schedule.

Part of the Crypto Jargon glossary — every term, decoded the way a trader would say it.

Crypto Jargon

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