Crypto Made Simple: Market Cap, Volume, and Price MovesMarket cap in simple terms
Market cap is the total “value” of a coin: price per coin × number of coins that exist and trade freely. If a coin has 10 million coins and each is 2 dollars, the market cap is 20 million dollars.
Think of market cap as the coin’s “size,” not its safety score. Big coins (large cap) are like big companies: well known, usually easier to trade, but they can still drop a lot in bad markets.
Volume as the coin’s heartbeat
Volume is how much of the coin is bought and sold in a time period, usually 24 hours. If a coin has 1 billion dollars traded in a day, that means a lot of people are actively buying and selling it.
High volume usually means you can get in and out more easily without moving the price too much. Low volume can mean few traders, bigger spreads, and the price can jump or crash from just a few larger orders.
Price trends without the drama
Price trend is simply how the price has been moving over time: up, down, or sideways. In crypto, prices can move a lot in one day or one week, so very short‑term moves are often noisy and emotional.
Looking at weekly or monthly charts instead of only the 5‑minute chart helps you see whether a move is just short‑term noise or part of a bigger trend. A 10% move in a week can be normal in crypto, even for big coins.
Simple rules of thumb
Do not assume “big market cap = safe forever”; big coins can still fall a lot.
Always check volume; avoid chasing moves in very low‑volume coins where a few trades can fake the chart.
Do not overreact to minute‑by‑minute moves in a 24/7 market; focus more on the bigger trend and your own risk plan.
