The price of Bitcoin hits new highs, and the market value of Bitcoin exceeds 20 billion US dollars for the first time

This year has been a historic year witnessing the transformation of Bitcoin. The market acceptance and value of this controversial, decentralized global digital currency have reached new highs, with its market value exceeding 200亿美元for the first time.

Bitcoin was born in a log cabin in Illinois… Wait, isn’t that how I introduced Abraham Lincoln? However, they are both beacons of personal freedom, so I don’t feel out of place when I describe them this way.

Since the first Bitcoin transaction between Satoshi Nakamoto and Hal Finney on January 3, 2009, the digital currency has made great progress. Currently, most countries in the world are using Bitcoin, and the number of miners and nodes in the network is increasing, creating value for this digital token.

What is market capitalization?

Not everyone understands the meaning of "market capitalization" because it is an economic term used to measure the size of a company and is not an everyday term. Market cap is the abbreviation of market capitalization, which is equal to the estimated assets of a company or institution multiplied by the total amount of issued assets.

(Data source: Coin.Dance)

Therefore, everything can be measured by market value, even countries. So how does the value of Bitcoin compare to a country?

The result is that Bitcoin has done quite well. In fact, if Bitcoin’s $20 billion market cap were equivalent to the market cap of a country, it would definitely rank in the top 50 in the world, according to 2015 World Bank data. It would be right between Bahrain and Sri Lanka, but higher than countries like Hungary, Iceland, and Bermuda. Bitcoin’s market cap surpassed that of silver a long time ago.

If Bitcoin were an American city, though, it wouldn’t rank very high. Cities like Buffalo and New York, which aren’t considered hubs of economic activity, both have market caps of more than $80 billion. Tech giant Apple has a market cap of $540 billion. So in this ocean of value, Bitcoin is still a drop in the ocean, but the fact that it’s growing is undeniable.

In addition, the value of Bitcoin is likely to change dramatically in a week, because the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will give the final result of the Winklevoss brothers' Bitcoin ETF. It is estimated that about 3亿美元will flow into the Bitcoin market in the first week after the ETF is approved.