Fully diluted valuation, or FDV, multiplies the current price by the maximum supply rather than the circulating supply. It answers a blunt question: if all the locked, vesting and unissued tokens arrived tomorrow and the price somehow held, what would this project be valued at?
The ratio between FDV and market cap is the useful part. A coin whose FDV is three times its market cap has two thirds of its supply still to come, and that supply has to be absorbed by new buyers or the price falls. A large gap is not automatically a problem — it depends on how fast the unlock schedule runs — but it is the first thing to check on a recently launched token.
Why is FDV sometimes much higher than market cap?
Because most of the supply has not been released yet. Newly launched tokens often circulate a small fraction of their eventual supply, so FDV can be several multiples of market cap until the vesting schedule completes.
Last updated October 17, 2026