Bitcoin’s market cap breaks $1 trillion after tripling in three months

Published at: Feb. 19, 2021

Bitcoin has rallied into new all-time highs above $53,700, pushing its market cap above $1 trillion for the first time.

Bitcoin’s late 2020 rally appeared to be sparked by an unprecedented wave of demand from institutions and billionaires, with the trend set after the world’s largest publicly traded business intelligence company, MicroStrategy, revealed it had converted $250 million of its treasury into BTC on Aug. 11.

By the end of January 2021, MicroStrategy had invested $1.095 billion to accumulate 71,079 BTC or 0.38% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply. In early February, the firm hosted a free webinar providing strategies for incorporating Bitcoin into corporate treasury reserves and MicroStrategy is currently in the process of raising a further $900M to buy more BTC.

Institutional asset manager, Grayscale also aggressively ramped up its Bitcoin accumulation during 2020, with its Bitcoin Trust reporting an 872% increase in assets under management from $1.8 billion at the start of the year to $17.5 billion at the start of January. To date, Grayscale has purchased Bitcoin at a rate that is faster than new BTC supply being created.

On Feb. 8, news that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had invested $1.5 billion or 7.7% of the electric vehicle maker’s treasury into BTC sent the Bitcoin price soaring to new all-time highs above $43,000.

And the bullish institutional news just keeps coming, with rumors suggesting Twitter may become the next major firm to add Bitcoin to its balance sheet, and mega banks like BNY Mellon and Deutsche Bank announcing moves to introduce BTC custody services. Major funds like BlackRock, and Morgan Stanley are considering whether an investment into Bitcoin is warranted.

Bitcoin's 2020

The $1 trillion milestone follows 12 months of extreme volatility for Bitcoin, with BTC’s capitalization increasing by more than 10 times since the depths of the “Black Thursday” crash in March 2020.

Amid the increasing threat of the coronavirus pandemic, former U.S. president Donald Trump introduced a travel ban from Europe to the United States on March 11, with many nations across the world entering into total lockdowns.

The rising panic caused chaos in the cryptocurrency and legacy financial markets as the price of Bitcoin crashed more than 50% on March 11 to less than $4,000 by March 13 — triggering wholesale liquidations across leveraged exchanges. On March 13, Bitcoin’s market cap was sitting below $100 billion for the first time since May 2019.

Despite the carnage, opportunistic buyers steadily pushed prices back up while accumulating in anticipation of Bitcoin’s third block reward halving in May 2020. BTC briefly reclaimed $10,000 during May after it was revealed that renowned billionaire hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones had invested in BTC as a hedge against inflation.

While 2020’s third-quarter DeFi bull market and the excitement for Ethereum’s Eth.2 overhaul would steal the spotlight away from BTC, many of the profits gleaned from the DeFi boom appeared quickly to make their way into Bitcoin — with BTC rocketing past $12,000 at the end of October. It tested its record highs from 2017 towards the end of November after PayPal launched crypto trading services in the United States.

Due to its increased supply since 2017,  Bitcoin posted a new record market cap on Nov. 18, with the capitalization of BTC pushing above $326.5B for the first time its price rallied past $18,000.

Bitcoin’s market cap has since more than tripled in roughly three months, with BTC’s December push into new all-time price highs driving the rally into high gear.

It took Bitcoin just 12 years to grow from an obscure academic whitepaper to a $1 trillion dollar decentralized network, becoming the eighth tradable asset to currently boast a thirteen-figure market cap. 

By contrast, it took Microsoft 45 years for its capitalization to exceed $1 trillion. Amazon took 27 years and Google achieved the $1 trillion mark in just 22 years.

Now the question is, how long will it take before Bitcoin approaches the market cap of gold?

Tags
Bitcoin
Bitcoin Price
Cryptocurrencies
Market Capitalization
Market Capitalization News
Related Posts
Analysts say this key metric suggests an altcoin season is at hand
Bitcoin’s (BTC) 65% recovery from sub-$29,500 on July 20 to a swing high of $48,200 on Aug. 14 took less than a month and helped bring fresh bullish momentum back to the crypto market and to traders who were dreading the prospect of another prolonged bear market. Currently, the BTC rally has stalled out near the $46,000 price level, and this phase of sideways trading is giving altcoins an opportunity to step forward. As shown in the chart below, the total market capitalization of the altcoin market has risen 80% since July 20. Meanwhile, the Bitcoin dominance rate is down …
Nft / Aug. 17, 2021
Bitcoin Dips Below $10,000 for the Second Time in July
The Bitcoin (BTC) price has dipped below the $10,000 price mark on July 16, while all top 20 coins by market cap are seeing significant losses. Market visualization from Coin360 Bitcoin has dipped below $10,000 threshold for the second time this month after the biggest cryptocurrency broke a multi-month high above $13,700 on June 26. After Bitcoin attempted another recovery to reach nearly $11,000 yesterday, the major coin has dropped to $9,616 at press time, down 8.22% over the past 24 hours. The biggest cryptocurrency is down more than 22% over the past 7 days. Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s dominance on crypto …
Bitcoin / July 16, 2019
Crypto Markets Continue Rising While Bitcoin’s Dominance Continues to Drop
Monday, April 1 — crypto markets have continued to rise, with Bitcoin (BTC) seeing stable growth over the day, according to data from CoinMarketCap. Out of top 20 cryptos by market cap, only two coins are in the red at press time. Over the past 24 hours, Tezos (XTZ) is down about 5.7 percent, while Cardano (ADA) dropped around 0.9 percent. Market visualization from Coin360 The biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, is up 1.4 percent over the day, trading at $4,160 at press time. Over the past 7 days, Bitcoin is up more than 3.5 percent, with its intraweek low of $3,937, …
Bitcoin / April 1, 2019
Crypto Markets Lose $2 Billion After Brief Recovery Attempt, US Stock Market Is Down
Tuesday, Feb. 26: after a brief recovery attempt yesterday, crypto markets have lost more than $2 billion in terms of total market capitalization today, with the top 20 cryptocurrencies seeing mixed signals. While the market is overall trading sideways, most of top 20 coins are in the red at press time. Market visualization from Coin360 The largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), is down around 1 percent over the past 24 hours, trading at $3,847 at press time. Following major losses on Feb. 24, the top cryptocurrency is down over 3 percent over the past 7 days. Bitcoin 24-hour price chart. Source: …
Bitcoin / Feb. 26, 2019
Bitcoin Price Near $3,400, Wider Crypto Markets See Another Mild Slump
Thursday, Dec. 13: after seeing a small rebound yesterday, crypto markets are experiencing another mild decline, with 19 out of the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market cap in red. Market visualization from Coin360 Top cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC) has not managed to hold $3,500 support, dropping to as low as $3,406 earlier today. As of press time, the coin is trading at $3,417, down about 2 percent over the past 24 hours. The leading coin is down about 6.5 percent over the past 7 days by press time. Bitcoin 24-hour price chart. Source: CoinMarketCap Bitcoin Price Index Ripple (XRP), the second …
Bitcoin / Dec. 13, 2018