Fully Diluted Value (FDV)

Definition

FDV stands for Fully Diluted Valuation. It’s what the market cap would be if every token that will ever exist were already in circulation at today’s price.

$\text{FDV} = \text{Price} \times \text{Total Supply (max)}$

Compare to:

$\text{Market Cap} = \text{Price} \times \text{Circulating Supply}$

The difference between the two numbers tells you whether locked, vested, or not-yet-minted tokens are being counted.

What’s actually being measured

• Market Cap counts only tokens that are currently tradeable.
• FDV counts everything: tokens in circulation plus tokens still locked in team allocations, investor vesting schedules, treasury reserves, staking emissions, and future minting.

If a project has emissions or vesting, FDV is always higher than MCAP. Once everything has unlocked and no more tokens will be minted, FDV equals MCAP.

Worked example

The good case — SKYAI:

• Price: $0.40
• Market Cap: $400M
• FDV: $400M
• MCAP ÷ FDV = 100%

Everything is already in circulation. No team unlocks, no investor cliffs, no emissions ahead. What you see trading is the whole token.

The bad case — a heavily vested launch:

• Price: $1
• Circulating supply: 100M → MCAP = $100M
• Total/max supply: 1B → FDV = $1B
• MCAP ÷ FDV = 10%

Today’s $100M valuation only reflects 10% of the supply. The remaining 900M tokens will eventually unlock and start trading. For the price to hold at $1 after full dilution, the market would need to absorb 10x as much demand as it has today. Usually it doesn’t, so the price drifts down as unlocks land.

Why FDV matters

FDV is a forward-looking supply warning. It answers the question: “If every promised token shows up at today’s price, what would this project be worth?”

When FDV is much higher than MCAP, you’re effectively being told that future supply is queued up to hit the market. That supply has to be absorbed by new buying pressure — otherwise price falls. Every meaningful unlock event is a potential sell pressure event.

Quick reference

Practical checks before buying

1. Compare MCAP and FDV. If they’re equal, dilution risk is off the table.
2. If FDV > MCAP, find the vesting schedule. When do the next unlocks land? How big are they relative to current daily volume?
3. Compare next unlock size to liquidity. If the next unlock is bigger than the entire DEX pool, expect price impact when it lands.
4. Watch the timing. Token unlocks often produce predictable sell pressure in the days around the unlock event.

TL;DR

MCAP is what the market values right now. FDV is what the market would value if everyone’s tokens existed today.

When the two are equal, there are no hidden future sellers. When FDV is much larger than MCAP, you’re being told that more supply is coming — and the math of holding price requires increasingly large demand to absorb it.