Added volume numbers. I'll get around to adding some new coins soon. Thanks to all who gave feedback and support over the last few days
I'm doing my best accommodate everyone's requests.
Hi, I do not know from where you get volumes but look at these values:
http://cryptoranking.com/It is 100% correct based on Btc-e and Cryptsy. Something is wrong with your counter.
I wasn't considering the USD crosses at BTC-e. Should be fixed now, thanks for reporting.
Suggestion: show Ripple's market cap as the value per XRP multiplied by the total XRP released into circulation.
Bitcoin for example is shown as a current market cap calculated from the 12,180,975 BTC currently in circulation, giving us:
$9,287,262,579 = $762.44 * 12,180,975
However, if one were to follow the logic applied to XRP then the BTC market cap should be shown as the total number of BTC that will ever be in circulation, giving us:
$16,011,240,000 = $762.44 * 21,000,000
And for Litecoin:
$2,013,480,000 = $23.97 * 84,000,000
Therefore at some of its previous prices LTC's market cap would have exceeded Ripple's: the current chart's method of calculation does not account for this.
Although Ripple is centralised so its XRP are not mined but released by a central authority I think this process is functionally similar to that of mining other decentralised cryptographic currencies. Therefore in my opinion Ripple's market cap on the chart should account for the XRP that have been released to be consistent with all the other currencies on the chart.
I understand what you're saying, but that's not marketcap. At any time, the creators at Ripple can sell or distribute XRP whenever they want, unlike with Bitcoin, no one can sell the unmined coins. This is what they do with large company IPOs - when they sell shares, usually only a certain percentage is released to the public, but the marketcap is based on the the total amount. Also there is the logistical problem of figuring out programmatically how many they haven't released yet. Do you know of a way?
I agree with objection to Ripple market cap. In fact, Ripple doesnt fit to the list of listed virtual currencies at all, since it is all premined. Perphaps more than 99% of XRP (anybody knows the exact number?) have never enter the market. There is no exact way how to assing the value for these XRP because they are held apart for market as creators reserves. The discrepancy can be seen in traded volume. Although XRP is second behind BTC with 1/3.5 of BTC market cap, the volume of XRP traded is 1/500 of BTC (discrepancy of 150x), while LCT is 1/16 of BTC market cap, the traded volume is approximately 1/14 of BTC traded volume. Based on todays volume, effective market cap is more like 5 000 000 USD than 2 600 000 000 USD.
I disagree on comparison of the total number of XRP to the the total shares of company. Usualy company shares aquire the value in line with (future) profit of a company. Value of single share can be speculatively calculated based on (future) P/E model. XRP is more like a currency than a share. There is no profit which can be conected to single XRP, the value of XRP is decided by free market participants who trade and hold XRP according to their needs and views. When one entity holds 99% of all XRPs in reserves it is barely free market and the usual formula for market cap doesnt make sense here.
Better, Ripple Labs should be compared to the FED. They hold 99% of XRP in reserves, while having the power of diluting the currency at will according to their monetary policy - which they surely have as essential part of their bussiness plan.
For me, counting only XRP released to public, would work well, although I think there is no "best market cap" here to measure.
