[scottnyc]

The number is without question much smaller than the current market cap of BTC. The current price and number of shares traded on the exchanges is not very meaningful since exchanges are unregulated and you have behavior such as wash trading where you can manipulate the price and inflate volume.

What I would like to know is how much money has actually been transferred into the exchanges. That is what matters. If Coinbase has 12 million accounts, and on average only $100 was invested (I'm assuming there are MANY opened yet unfunded accounts), then we're talking about $1.2billion at play moving back and forth on that exchange. (this is just a hypothetical number, I would love Coinbase to produce statistics, but know they have no incentive to.)

If no new accounts get opened and no more money flows in, That $1.2b will slowly drop to zero as Coinbase and the miners eat up that pool with fees.