What is FDV in Crypto?
Fully diluted valuation, or FDV, is one of the most useful metrics for understanding a crypto project’s tokenomics. It shows what a cryptocurrency would be worth if its entire potential token supply were in circulation. We’re covering everything you need to know in our FDV guide.
What is Fully Diluted Valuation (FDV) in crypto?
Fully diluted valuation is the theoretical value of a cryptocurrency if its entire maximum or total supply were circulating at the current token price.
In simple terms, FDV answers the question: what would this project be worth if all of its tokens were already in the market?
This is particularly important for newer crypto projects. A token might launch with only 10% or 20% of its total supply available to trade, making its market cap look relatively small. The remaining tokens could be allocated to the team, investors, community incentives, staking rewards, or the project's treasury and released over time.
FDV accounts for that future supply. For example, if a new token was trading at $2 with 10 million tokens currently circulating. Its market cap would be $20 million. But if the project has a maximum supply of 100 million tokens, its FDV would be $200 million.
The project therefore has a $20 million market cap but a $200 million FDV. Only 10% of the eventual supply is currently circulating.
That doesn't mean the project is actually worth $200 million today. FDV is a theoretical valuation based on the assumption that the full supply is circulating while the current token price stays unchanged. In reality, releasing another 90 million tokens could have a significant effect on that price.
How is FDV calculated?
The basic FDV formula is:
FDV = Current token price × maximum supply
Example
Token price: $5
Maximum supply: 100 million tokens
FDV: $500 million
Good to know
There is an important distinction between circulating supply, total supply, and maximum supply:
Circulating supply refers to tokens currently available in the market.
Total supply generally refers to tokens that have been issued, excluding tokens that have been permanently burned.
Maximum supply is the best estimate of the maximum number of tokens that can exist.
Most crypto platforms use maximum supply when calculating FDV, although the exact methodology can vary depending on the asset.
But some cryptocurrencies don't have a fixed maximum supply, which makes a conventional FDV calculation less straightforward. For example, ETH doesn't have a fixed maximum supply, so there isn't a simple "maximum supply × current price" calculation in the same way there is for tokens with a hard cap like Bitcoin.
Why does FDV matter?
FDV matters because market cap alone can make a crypto project look smaller than it really is.
Imagine two projects:
Project A
Market cap: $100 million
FDV: $120 million
Project B
Market cap: $100 million
FDV: $1 billion
Both have the same current market cap, but their tokenomics are very different.
Project A already has most of its supply circulating. Project B has only a small portion of its eventual supply in the market.
That doesn't automatically make Project B a bad investment. It does mean investors need to understand where the remaining 90% of its supply is going and when it will be released.
CoinGecko's 2026 analysis found that 21.3% of the top 300 cryptocurrencies by market cap were low-float assets, meaning more than half of their token supply was still locked or otherwise not circulating. CoinGecko defined these as assets with a market-cap-to-FDV ratio below 0.5. The study suggests a significant number of large crypto projects still have substantial future supply to enter the market, and highlights why looking only at market cap can miss an important part of the picture.
What is FDV used for?
FDV is mainly used to assess a project's valuation and understand its future token supply.
Comparing crypto projects: FDV can help investors compare projects with different circulating supplies. Looking at both figures gives a better idea of how much supply is already circulating and how much could still enter the market.
Assessing dilution risk: Future token unlocks can increase the circulating supply. If demand grows at the same rate as supply, the additional tokens don't necessarily cause a problem. But if supply grows faster than demand, the additional selling pressure can put downward pressure on the token price.
Understanding tokenomics: FDV is useful for understanding how a project has distributed its tokens. A large gap between market cap and FDV could mean that a substantial amount of the supply is allocated to early investors, the team, ecosystem incentives, or other categories that will unlock over time.
Evaluating new token launches: A project might launch with a $20 million market cap and generate excitement because it appears to have plenty of room to grow. But if its FDV is $2 billion, investors are effectively buying into a project that already has a much larger implied valuation.
What are the limitations of FDV?
FDV is useful, but it isn't a prediction of where a token's price will go.
The biggest limitation is the assumption behind the calculation: it assumes the current token price would remain unchanged as the remaining supply enters circulation. It means FDV can sometimes be misleading when presented as if it were an actual valuation.
FDV has other limitations too. It lacks other context about tokenomics, for example, the vesting schedule and distribution.
That's why FDV works best alongside the project's token unlock schedule, circulating supply, trading volume, and other fundamental metrics.
How does a fully diluted valuation impact crypto prices?
FDV doesn't directly move a cryptocurrency's price. Instead, the underlying token supply and demand dynamics that FDV highlights can affect price.
When new tokens are released, the circulating supply increases. If demand stays the same, there's more supply competing for the same amount of demand, which can create selling pressure.
A project with a large FDV but a gradual unlock schedule may have plenty of time to grow its user base and demand. Another project with the same FDV but billions of tokens scheduled to unlock within months could face much greater supply pressure.
FDV vs. market cap
Market cap and FDV are closely related, but they answer different questions.
Market cap = Current token price × circulating supply
FDV = Current token price × maximum supply
Market cap tells you the approximate current value of all circulating tokens. FDV estimates what the project's valuation would be if its maximum supply were circulating at the current price. For example:
| Project A | Project B | |
|---|---|---|
| Token price | $1 | $1 |
| Circulating supply | 800M | 100M |
| Maximum supply | 1B | 1B |
| Market cap | $800M | $100M |
| FDV | $1B | $1B |
| Market cap/FDV | 80% | 10% |
Project A already has 80% of its maximum supply circulating. Project B has only 10%.
That doesn't tell you which project is better or which token will perform better. It tells you that Project B has substantially more potential supply dilution to consider.
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