Because unit price is market capitalisation divided by circulating supply. Tari's XTM has a supply of 21 billion, a thousand times Bitcoin's 21 million, so any valuation spreads across a thousand times more slices and each slice is worth a fraction of a cent. Unit price shows how supply was sliced, not what the network is worth.
Last refreshed September 9, 2026
| Coverage scope | Answer family | Market data | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stable fields | market capitalisation formula, Bitcoin supply cap, Tari total supply and pre-mine, Monero tail emission, ether denominations | Dynamic fields | circulating supply of any coin, any market price or capitalisation |
Unit price is a division, not a valuation. Market data sites compute market capitalisation as price times circulating supply. Rearranged, price is market capitalisation divided by supply. Fix the valuation and multiply the supply by a thousand, and the unit price falls by a thousand while nothing about the network changes.
Tari against Bitcoin is the cleanest example. Bitcoin will only ever have 21 million units. Tari's XTM has a total supply of 21 billion, a thousand times more. The same market capitalisation therefore yields a Bitcoin price a thousand times higher than an XTM price, purely from the denominator.
So a sub-cent price is normal for XTM. A coin issued in the billions will trade in fractions of a cent until its market capitalisation reaches the billions. That is arithmetic, not a signal of quality, distress or opportunity.
| Unit price | Market capitalisation | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | The value of one unit at the last trade | Price multiplied by circulating supply |
| What moves it | Valuation changes and supply size | Valuation changes only |
| Comparable across coins | No; supplies differ by orders of magnitude | Yes; it is the same quantity for every coin |
| Effect of a 1,000x larger supply | 1,000x lower, with no change in the network | None |
| What a sub-cent figure tells you | The supply is large relative to the valuation | Nothing; market capitalisation is not quoted per unit |
Cheap does not mean room to grow. For a fraction-of-a-cent coin to reach one dollar, its market capitalisation would have to multiply by the same factor as its price. A coin with 21 billion units at one dollar each would be valued at 21 billion dollars. The unit price does not make that step any smaller.
The denominator can keep growing. Coins with tail emission, such as Monero and Tari, keep adding units indefinitely. At a fixed valuation, a rising supply means a falling unit price with no change in what the network is worth.
Circulating supply is reported, not measured on-chain by the data site. CoinGecko states that circulating supply comes from token teams and is then verified. Locked and vesting allocations can be excluded or included differently across sites, which changes the per-unit figure.
Supply rules as published by each project and the market data methodology used to turn them into a capitalisation.
| Bitcoin maximum supply | 21 million BTC, divisible to 8 decimal places |
|---|---|
| Tari total supply | 21 billion XTM, then a perpetual 1% annual tail emission |
| Tari pre-mine | 6.3 billion XTM (30%), subject to lockups and vesting |
| Monero maximum supply | None fixed; tail emission of 0.6 XMR or less per block since May 2022 |
| Ether smallest unit | 1 wei, equal to 10 to the minus 18 ether |
| Market capitalisation formula | Price multiplied by circulating supply (CoinGecko methodology) |
Bitcoin and XTM share a number, three zeros apart. Both cap at 21, but Bitcoin at 21 million and Tari at 21 billion. If the two networks were ever valued identically, one XTM would be worth exactly one thousandth of one bitcoin. The unit prices would look nothing alike; the valuations would be the same.
Ether shows the same idea from the other side. Ether is divided into wei at 10 to the minus 18, so a single ether contains a quintillion smallest units. Nobody calls ether cheap on that basis, because everyone quotes the whole unit. Which unit a project chooses to quote is a convention, and the convention is what makes some coins look like fractions of a cent.
Does XTM being priced under a cent mean it has more room to grow?
No. Reaching one dollar would require the market capitalisation to grow by the same multiple as the price. For XTM's 21 billion units that means a valuation of 21 billion dollars. Unit price does not shrink that requirement.
What should I compare instead of unit price?
Market capitalisation. It is price multiplied by circulating supply, so it is the same quantity for every coin and can be compared directly, whereas unit prices are distorted by supplies that differ by orders of magnitude.
What is the difference between XTM's circulating supply and total supply?
Circulating supply excludes locked or unvested tokens; total supply includes them. Tari's 21 billion XTM is a total supply with a 30% pre-mine under lockups and vesting, so the circulating number is smaller and gives a different per-unit figure from the total.
Why is Bitcoin not priced in tiny fractions when it can be divided so finely?
Whole bitcoins are the quoting convention, but the network already divides each one into 100 million satoshis. Quoting in satoshis would make Bitcoin look like a fraction-of-a-cent coin without changing anything. Ether does the same with wei at 10 to the minus 18.
Do all cryptocurrencies have a maximum supply?
Bitcoin's supply is capped at 21 million. Monero has no fixed maximum and pays a perpetual tail emission of 0.6 XMR or less per block. Tari emits to 21 billion and then continues with a 1% annual tail emission. Where the supply keeps growing, the unit price falls at any fixed valuation.