Solana & memecoins
What is market cap in crypto?
Market cap is the current price multiplied by the circulating supply. It is useful for comparing tokens at a glance and actively misleading on memecoins, because a token with almost no liquidity can print an enormous market cap from a single small buy. The money that would be needed to exit at that valuation was never there.
Why the number inflates so easily
Multiply by a billion-token supply and a price change too small to see becomes millions of dollars of market cap. If the pool holds 30,000 dollars of liquidity, that 5 million dollar cap describes a valuation nobody can realise. Always read market cap next to liquidity, never alone.
Circulating versus fully diluted
- Circulating. Price times tokens actually in circulation.
- Fully diluted. Price times total supply including everything locked or unissued. Always the larger and more flattering number.
- A large gap between them is a schedule of future selling that has not happened yet.
How traders actually use it
As a band, not a valuation. Under a few hundred thousand is early and mostly noise; a few million is where a token has cleared its first filter; tens of millions means the easy multiple has already happened. Which band you trade should be a written rule, because it determines your realistic upside and your exit difficulty at the same time.
Last reviewed