How to read crypto data: market cap, volume and more
A coin worth $0.01 is not "cheaper" than one worth $60,000. Price alone, without context, says very little. These are the figures shown in our cryptocurrency table and how to read them.
Market capitalization
Price multiplied by the number of coins in circulation. It measures how much the whole project is worth according to the market, and it is what the ranking is sorted by. A low-priced coin can be worth a great deal in total if billions of units exist.
24-hour volume
The total bought and sold over the last day. High volume relative to market cap signals lots of activity; very low volume means it may be hard to sell without moving the price. Careful: some exchanges' volume can be artificially inflated.
Circulating, total and max supply
- Circulating: coins already in the market's hands.
- Total: coins that exist today, including locked or team-reserved ones.
- Max: the cap that will never be exceeded, if there is one. Bitcoin has 21 million; ether and dogecoin have no cap.
Fully diluted valuation (FDV)
Price multiplied by max (or total) supply. It shows what the project would be worth if every future coin were already circulating. If FDV is far above market cap, many new coins are still to be released, which can put downward pressure on the price.
All-time high and low
The highest and lowest price in its history, with dates. They give context: a coin 80% below its high does not mean it "will come back", only that it was once worth that.
Bitcoin dominance
The share of the total crypto market cap that belongs to Bitcoin. When it rises, money is concentrating in bitcoin; when it falls, it is spreading to other coins.
Percentage change
The change over 1 hour, 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days and 1 year. Looking at several timeframes at once prevents hasty conclusions: a coin can be up 10% today and still down 50% on the year.
To see all of these on a real coin, open the Ethereum page or the Bitcoin page.