A cheap coin isn't cheap
Price alone tells you almost nothing
A coin at $0.01 and a coin at $60,000 can be worth exactly the same. What counts is the price times the number of coins in existence. That total, the market cap, is the price tag on the whole thing.
Why a penny coin rarely reaches a dollar
A $0.01 coin with 100 billion units is already a $1 billion project. To reach $1, the whole thing has to be worth $100 billion, a size only a handful of coins have ever reached.
Supply can keep growing
Bitcoin stops at 21 million coins. Many coins have no limit, or release new ones on a schedule. If the supply doubles and demand doesn't, each coin is worth half, even if nothing else changed.
Check yourself
Coin A costs $0.002. Coin B costs $40. Which one is cheaper?
- Coin A, by a long way
- Coin B, because it has fewer units
- You can't tell without knowing how many coins exist
Show the answer
You can't tell without knowing how many coins exist — Price per coin means nothing on its own. Multiply it by the supply: the 'cheap' coin can easily be worth more in total than the expensive one.