What Is Market Cap?

Market capitalization ("market cap") is the total market value of a company's outstanding shares of stock, or of a cryptocurrency's circulating tokens. It is calculated by multiplying the current price by the number of outstanding shares or tokens.

Formula

Market Cap = Current Price × Outstanding Shares (or Circulating Supply)

Why it matters

Market cap is the standard metric for comparing the size of public companies and cryptocurrencies. It is used to classify stocks (large-cap, mid-cap, small-cap), to weight major indices like the S&P 500, and to rank cryptocurrencies by relative importance.

Categories

  • Mega-cap: Over $200 billion
  • Large-cap: $10B – $200B
  • Mid-cap: $2B – $10B
  • Small-cap: $300M – $2B
  • Micro-cap: Under $300M

See also: Market Cap vs Enterprise Value.