FDV is the dilution warning label
A low market cap can hide a huge FDV — meaning most tokens haven't hit the market yet. When they unlock, they can crush the price. See the schedule impact on the market cap calculator.
FDV: the valuation including the future
Fully diluted valuation = price × maximum supply. Where market cap values what circulates today, FDV values the project as if every token that will ever exist were trading now. The gap between the two numbers is incoming dilution — supply that will unlock, vest, or be mined into existence, mostly to be sold.
The ratio to check: circulating ÷ max supply. Above 80%, market cap and FDV nearly agree and dilution is background noise (Bitcoin sits ~95%). Below 30%, the FDV is the honest number and the market cap is a teaser rate — a coin at $400M cap with $4B FDV needs to absorb 9× its current float in future selling.
Low-float/high-FDV launches are a recognized pattern: small circulating supply makes early price discovery easy to pump, headlines quote the cap, and vesting schedules deliver the supply into that demand for years. The FDV was the price tag all along.