The total supply metric of a crypto asset indicates the total number of coins or tokens of the project that will ever exist.

Not all the coins included in this metric are available to use, and burned coins do not form a part of this metric. This is different from circulating supply, which calculates only those coins or tokens that have been mined and are usable. Total supply also includes the coins that are yet to be created but are known to do so.

It’s the circulating supply and not the total supply that is used to calculate the market cap of a crypto project. Total supply also includes coins that have been locked due to pre-mining or intentionally kept out of circulation, locked in smart contracts.