Market cap, FDV & token unlocks
A low price per coin tells you nothing. Supply tells you everything.
Builder · 9 min · Updated 2026-11-08
💡 The pizza with promised slices
You buy one slice of a pizza cut into 10. Fair enough — you own 10%. But the chef has promised the kitchen staff 40 more slices next year, cut from the same pizza. Your slice will shrink to 2% unless the pizza grows. Circulating supply is today's slices; fully diluted supply includes all the promised ones.
The core formulas
- Market cap = price × circulating supply
- Fully diluted valuation (FDV) = price × maximum (or total) supply
- Float % = circulating ÷ max supply
Why "cheap" coins aren't cheap
A token at $0.01 with 500 billion coins has a $5 billion market cap — as "expensive" as a $50 token with 100 million coins. Always compare market caps, never unit prices.
Unlocks and vesting
Many tokens launch with a small float, while large allocations to founders, investors and treasuries unlock gradually. A cliff is a date when a big chunk unlocks at once; linear vesting releases tokens steadily. New supply hitting the market can pressure price if demand doesn't keep up.
Questions to ask
- What percentage is circulating today?
- Who holds the locked tokens and when do they unlock?
- Is there ongoing inflation (staking rewards, emissions)?
- Is max supply defined at all? (Some tokens have none — FDV is then an assumption.)
- Is supply data self-reported by the project?
🧮 Practical example: Token X
Key takeaways
- Market cap = price × circulating.
- FDV = price × max supply.
- Low float + big unlocks = dilution risk.
- Compare valuations, not unit prices.
Education only — not financial advice.