The original and foundational cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC) has, unsurprisingly, consistently maintained the largest market capitalization of all digital assets.
But it hasn’t exactly been a smooth ride — the volatile nature of crypto has led to numerous intense price changes that have added or subtracted billions in BTC’s market cap in short timeframes.
In 2024, a promising first quarter was followed up by an extended period of sideways trading without a clear trend. Since mid-October however, things have changed — Bitcoin, as well as the wider crypto market, is now in a bull run, buoyed by tailwinds from resurgent recession fears and the election of Donald Trump, widely seen as the pro-crypto candidate of the 2024 presidential race.
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While it hit a few snags along the way, Bitcoin has now reached a new all-time high, reaching prices above $100,000 for the first time. At press time, one BTC was trading at approximately $102,632.
With this latest move to the upside comes another significant milestone — at the time of writing, Bitcoin is now the 10th largest currency in the entire world — a fact that could very well serve to further legitimize the asset as not only a speculative investment but a store of value.
BTC’s market cap has surpassed the Australian Dollar — is the Hong Kong Dollar next?
The combined worth of all the Bitcoin in circulation — estimated to be 19,790,568 Bitcoins, has shot past the market capitalization of the Australian dollar, estimated to be equivalent to 19,485,928 BTC, per data retrieved by Finbold on December 5 from FiatMarketCap.
At present, Bitcoin’s total supply is worth more than the total supply of some of the fiat currencies tied to several major economies — including the Swiss Franc, the New Taiwan Dollar, and the Brazilian Real.
A larger gap remains between BTC and the next largest currency in the world, the Hong Kong Dollar, whose total market capitalization is worth roughly 22,867,604 BTC at the time of publication. To surpass the HKD, Bitcoin would have to see another 15% move to the upside — a prospect that isn’t unlikely at all, when looking at past market cycles.
As the leading digital asset continues to climb towards $110,000, some $8 billion in short positions is at risk of liquidation — if that happens, the bull run could see renewed vigor as buying pressure increases.
In the long term, BTC prices could reach much greater levels — technical analysis based on Fibonacci levels shared by profiling trading expert TradingShot suggests that by early 2025, Bitcoin could trade at levels closer to $140,000. While impressive, this would still leave it with a slightly smaller market capitalization than the Hong Kong Dollar — but going forward, it seems likely that it’s only a matter of time before BTC surpasses it.
Featured image via Shutterstock
