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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.
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.
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