Three supply figures are published for most tokens and they routinely differ by large multiples. Which one a valuation uses changes the answer more than almost anything else about the project.
The three figures measure different things
Circulating supply counts tokens that exist and are free to move. Total supply counts everything issued, including tokens locked in contracts or held by the project.
Maximum supply is the ceiling written into the design, covering tokens that have not been created yet but will be under a defined schedule.
A project can have a modest circulating supply and a maximum many times larger, with the difference sitting in treasuries, team allocations and future emissions.
Market capitalisation uses only the first
Market capitalisation multiplies price by circulating supply, which is why a token trading at a small price can still rank highly and why rankings shift when locked tokens unlock.
Fully diluted valuation multiplies the same price by maximum supply, answering what the project would be worth if every token existed today at the current price.
A large gap between the two figures means most of the eventual supply has not reached the market, and the price is being set by a small free float.
A small float amplifies price movement
When only a fraction of supply trades, modest buying pressure moves the price a long way, because there is little available to sell into it.
The same works in reverse. Thin float produces sharp declines on modest selling, and the volatility says more about availability than about changing views of the project.
This is also why a token can list at a high valuation on very little capital actually being committed.
Classification is not standardised
Whether treasury holdings, staked tokens or long-locked allocations count as circulating is a judgement, and different data providers make it differently.
Projects have an incentive to report a lower circulating figure, since it makes the market capitalisation look smaller relative to the price.
What to check instead of the headline
The useful information is the schedule: how much supply is locked, when it releases, and to whom.
That schedule is normally published, and reading it turns an abstract dilution risk into a set of dates on which a known quantity becomes sellable.
Comparing two tokens on market capitalisation alone, without checking how much of each supply is still to arrive, compares figures that are not measuring the same thing.