Learning the Difference Between Soft Cap and Hard Cap in Crypto

he Concept of Market Capitalization

Capitalization is a popular metric for calculating and tracking a cryptocurrency’s market worth.
Experts use the market capitalization of a cryptocurrency to measure its dominance and popularity. Therefore, it is essential to clarify that more than market capitalization is required to make an investment decision.
Each coin needs to go through deep analytical work by experts in the field. In this context, market capitalization is only one of the many elements to study.
Generally, the larger a cryptocurrency’s market cap is, the more dominant it is. As a result, pundits see market capitalization as the single most relevant metric for rating cryptocurrencies.
The current price multiplied by the circulating supply determines a cryptocurrency’s market cap.
In general, we can divide the market into three categories:

• Large-cap coins are tokens with substantial market capitalization. As a result, these coins will likely be less volatile than other cryptocurrencies but still riskier than traditional assets.
• Mid-cap coins are more volatile than large-cap cryptocurrencies but have higher growth potential.
• Small-cap coins are notoriously volatile and represent high-risk investments, despite their short-term growth potential.

Soft Cap Definition

A soft cap is the lowest limit for a blockchain project launch in crypto fund-raising. It is a purely theoretical value, and its definition is entirely arbitrary.
On the other hand, a hard cap is the maximum amount of funds the team may collect. If a team cannot raise funds above its soft cap limit, it may choose to close the project. In this case, investors typically receive a refund of the money they spend.
However, nothing usually forces the team to stop the project if funding is lower than the soft cap. In other cases, developers may use the money to develop the project further.
If you are familiar with pre-sale, ICOs, and other offerings, you will know that these limits don’t follow rigorous rules. So while one may doubt the validity of a project that cannot reach its soft cap, there are no regulations.
Each crypto project has a roadmap with ambitious milestones. A soft cap should enable developers to deliver the minimum viable product (MVP) to the market. In addition, the soft cap amount should be sufficient to provide money to the team for initial developments.
What about the hard cap? Why would a team limit the amount of money it can collect? The following section will provide more details on the matter.

The Need for a Hard Cap

An excellent hard cap is necessary for three important reasons. First, let us give more details in the following subsections.

Creating Scarcity

The world’s first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is valuable because, among other things, it has a limited supply. But, unfortunately, as most crypto enthusiasts know, there will only be 21 million BTC on the market.
Any project that imposes a hard cap must follow supply and demand principles. The concept is very similar to what we see in the art industry if you think about it.
On the other hand, business leaders and team members must strike a delicate balance to correct this number. In general, the value of tokens decreases as the number of tokens increases, and vice versa.
This principle guides the category of deflationary tokens, a popular system in the blockchain sector.

Being Realistic

The hard cap has an implicit link to the underlying project’s roadmap. Therefore, the team should always clarify the purpose of the collected money during each offering phase.
Think of a project that promises minor developments and observes relevant hype on the market (for example, memecoins). In this case, the team may need help handling an enormous amount of money.
The hard cap limit can help teams control the money inflow on a young project.

Limiting Whales

Speculators may decide to put a significant amount of money into a new project only to dump the coins after the ICO. These “whales” can undermine the credibility of a project, causing enormous short-term price fluctuations.
The hard cap mechanism can help the team keep wealthy speculators away from their tokens.

Do All Projects Use Hard and Soft Caps?

Everything we have mentioned in our article is only valid for a particular group of projects. Specifically, we are talking about those that enter the market with a capped ICO. So what happens when a team decides to use an uncapped ICO scheme?
There are many cases of listing in both categories. Tezos (XTZ), for example, entered the market with an uncapped ICO. Conversely, Brave (BAT) used a capped system to debut in the industry.
While a capped ICO keeps the network healthy, more than the limited funds may be needed to keep the business running. A project underestimating its soft cap value may require a second investment round.

Key Takeaways

Soft and hard caps ICOs can send a message to the market beyond the funding matter. They reveal much about the project, crew, and vision. A good strategy is to understand whether a project’s soft cap is realistic compared to the team’s goals.