Think Crypto’s Real Value Was $3 Trillion? Try $875 Billion

It was a $2 trillion wipeout, or so they say. The still-unfolding crypto winter, which leveled an entire blockchain’s ecosystem, a large hedge fund, a couple of crypto lenders, and an untold number of retail investors, sent crypto’s total market capitalization plummeting to about $1 trillion, from roughly $3 trillion at its peak in November.

Seeing that number made me wonder if market cap—which is just the number of tokens multiplied by each one’s latest price—is a good way to measure the overall size of the industry. Also, given that a vast number of coins have simply vanished and ...