What is cryptocurrency market capitalization? The closest thing to the concept of cryptocurrency market capitalization is the capitalization of the stock market, which is an indicator of the scale of all transactions that take place in the stock market. It is defined as the total market value of the securities traded on the exchange. Similarly, cryptocurrency market capitalization indicates the total value of cryptocoins circulating on the market, based on the price per coin.
In other words, to calculate the total cryptocurrency market capitalization or the capitalization of a particular cryptocurrency: multiply the value of the coin(s) by the number of coins in circulation. As you can see, calculating the capitalization is quite easy: we know the number of coins in circulation for each cryptocurrency, as well as the price. But!
Nuances in the calculation of capitalization
But those who have worked with cryptocurrencies will immediately understand that calculating the actual capitalization is made difficult by the fact that the cost of coins changes constantly, sometimes dramatically. In addition, unlike securities traded on an exchange, the number of coins is constantly growing. But this isn't the only thing that makes it difficult to calculate the cryptocurrency market capitalization.
Bitcoin represents a large, almost overwhelming, share of the entire market's capitalization. But it is impossible to say exactly how many bitcoins are in circulation. We know exactly how many bitcoins have been created. But a huge percentage of them are not in circulation. When bitcoin was cheap, many people created a bitcoin wallet and forgot about it. Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged bitcoin creator, mined about a million coins, but nobody knows where they are now.
It is believed that between the location of between 1.5 and 4 million bitcoins is unknown. They are not being circulated and may be lost forever. As a result, we can only calculate an approximation of the cryptocurrency market capitalization.
Still, market capitalization is noted on cryptoexchanges and websites. It is an important indicator for investors who look at whether capitalization is growing or not. Last year, the cryptocurrency market capitalization almost reached a trillion dollars. This is an outstanding figure. The capitalization is not so high now, since bitcoin's slide, with many other cryptocurrencies following it down. But if you look at the indicators for a longer period, you can immediately see that the capitalization is growing from year to year.
You can see the current capitalization at
https://coinmarketcap.com/