Long Beach (CoinChapter) – Bitcoin is now worth more than the world’s two biggest payment networks, Visa and Mastercard, combined. Publicly available data shows Bitcoin’s to be around $1.15 trillion at its all-time high of $61,700. Visa and Mastercard’s combined market cap is $871 billion.
Additionally, the world’s leading cryptocurrency achieves a higher market valuation than the world’s three biggest banks combined. JPMorgan, Bank of America, and The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China have a combined market cap of $1.08 trillion.
Even though Bitcoin has seen a slight dip since reaching its new high this past weekend, it is still maintaining its trillion-dollar-resource title. Its market cap remains at $1.03 trillion.
This level had previously been pointed out by analysts as a likely area of consolidation. That remains the case after Monday’s drop took Bitcoin below its previous all-time high set at the end of February.
Digging further into the market cap information brings about some other interesting notes. On-chain analytics resource Ecoinometrics added that as of March 13, Bitcoin equalled 45% of the gold held in investment vehicles. They also noted that BTC holds 10% of the actual gold market overall.
In order to completely eclipse gold, already a subject of debate among market analysts, BTC/USD would have to trade at $590,000.
Bitcoin’s Rise Has Been Astronomical
Bitcoin’s rise has been truly astronomical in every sense. In comparison, Bitcoin has gone from zero to $1 trillion in network value 3.6 times faster than Microsoft.
Both Visa and Mastercard have begun taking the leap into the crypto industry this year. Visa partnered with BlockFi to release the first credit card to offer Bitcoin as a reward. They also have plans on a Visa crypto software program to help banks roll out bitcoin and cryptocurrency buying and trading services.
Mastercard meanwhile, has also announced that it would begin supporting select cryptocurrencies on its payment network.
