Market Basics
Practical guides to market basics, part of our crypto fundamentals series. Education only — never financial advice.
What this section covers
- 24/7 Crypto Markets — Understand what continuous crypto trading really means, why liquidity still changes by time and day, and how weekends and session overlaps affect market behaviour.
- Crypto Price Quotations — Learn how crypto pairs are quoted, how base and quote assets work, and why bid, ask, last, mark and index prices can differ across venues.
- Market Capitalisation — Learn how crypto market capitalisation is calculated, how it differs from fully diluted valuation, and why market cap is useful but incomplete as a valuation measure.
- Circulating Supply — Understand circulating supply, how it differs from total and maximum supply, and why token issuance, burns and unlocks matter to crypto valuation and trading.
- Trading Volume and Liquidity — Learn the difference between crypto trading volume and liquidity, how spread, depth and slippage affect execution, and why headline volume can be misleading.
5 guides, about 20 minutes of reading, written for novice level.
Questions these guides answer
- Does Bitcoin ever close?
- Are weekends always more volatile?
- Should I trade around the clock?
- What does BTC/USD = 90,000 mean?
- Why do some platforms use USDT rather than USD?
- What is a mark price?
- Is a higher market cap safer?
- Can market cap rise without much new money entering?
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24/7 Crypto Markets
Understand what continuous crypto trading really means, why liquidity still changes by time and day, and how weekends and session overlaps affect mark
- • Does Bitcoin ever close?
- • Are weekends always more volatile?
- • Should I trade around the clock?
Crypto Price Quotations
Learn how crypto pairs are quoted, how base and quote assets work, and why bid, ask, last, mark and index prices can differ across venues.
- • What does BTC/USD = 90,000 mean?
- • Why do some platforms use USDT rather than USD?
- • What is a mark price?
Market Capitalisation
Learn how crypto market capitalisation is calculated, how it differs from fully diluted valuation, and why market cap is useful but incomplete as a va
- • Is a higher market cap safer?
- • Can market cap rise without much new money entering?
- • Why do data sites show different market caps?
Circulating Supply
Understand circulating supply, how it differs from total and maximum supply, and why token issuance, burns and unlocks matter to crypto valuation and
- • Does Bitcoin have a maximum supply?
- • What is a token unlock?
- • Can burned tokens return to circulation?
Trading Volume and Liquidity
Learn the difference between crypto trading volume and liquidity, how spread, depth and slippage affect execution, and why headline volume can be misl
- • Is higher volume always better?
- • What is slippage?
- • Why does liquidity fall during volatility?
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