Market cap is the total value of outstanding shares of a company/asset traded in the market. Basically, companies that have a large market cap are considered more stable and tend to have better growth opportunities, and vice versa.
Meanwhile, in the crypto market, market cap refers to the total value of all outstanding coins/tokens of a crypto asset. The crypto market cap is used as an indicator of the size and popularity of a crypto asset in the market.
There are other aspects that can also affect the crypto market cap, including liquidity, number of transactions, and market demand. Market cap itself is more popular in crypto markets because crypto markets have different characteristics from traditional financial markets.
As is well known, the crypto market is still relatively new and very volatile with very fast and drastic price movements. Therefore, investors tend to look for ways to measure the size and popularity of a crypto asset in the market.