Market cap only prices circulating supply
Crypto market cap is usually price multiplied by circulating supply. It is useful, but it only values the tokens currently counted as circulating. A project can appear smaller than competitors because much of its supply is locked, unvested, or reserved.
That can be reasonable for an early network, but readers should not confuse low float with cheap valuation. If future supply is large, today's price may imply a much larger fully diluted valuation than the market cap suggests.
FDV asks what the whole supply is worth
Fully diluted valuation usually equals token price multiplied by total or max supply. It is a rough measure because not every token may enter the market at once, but it gives readers a way to compare the current price against the full supply promise.
A high FDV can still be justified if the project has strong usage, revenue, network effects, and disciplined supply release. The red flag is not FDV alone. The red flag is a high FDV with weak traction and near-term unlock pressure.
Float changes the trading experience
Low float can create sharp price moves because fewer tokens are available to trade. That can produce attractive charts before large unlocks arrive. When float expands, the market needs enough demand to absorb the new supply.
Readers should compare float expansion with likely demand sources. Is there real user activity, fee generation, staking demand, governance demand, or integration demand? Or is the buyer base mostly momentum-driven?
The useful comparison is pressure over time
A stronger valuation review maps supply over the next 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. It asks which groups unlock, whether they bought at lower prices, and whether they have reasons to sell. It also asks whether incentives create temporary demand that fades after rewards drop.
This turns FDV from a scary headline into an operating question. Can the network grow enough real demand to justify the supply that will exist later?