Bitcoin’s market capitalization exceeds $ 300 billion, 90% of its all-time high

While Bitcoin’s price crossed the $ 16,000 mark in the past 24 hours, Bitcoin’s market cap broke the elusive $ 300 billion mark – the first time it has done so since December 19, 2017, just two days later. that cryptocurrency has hit its infamous all-time record. high.

At that time, Bitcoin’s price hit $ 20,000 and its market capitalization went up to $ 333 billion. And now, both figures are getting closer to their respective targets.

According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin’s market cap is now just over $ 302 billion. This means it is 90% of the way to matching the highest market cap of all time. In contrast, Bitcoin’s price is currently $ 16,290, so only 81% of its all-time high.

It makes sense that the market cap is a closer figure and will pass its milestone before the price of Bitcoin does. This is because the market capitalization of a coin is calculated by multiplying the number of coins and its price. As Bitcoin’s inflation rate produces around 657,000 Bitcoins per year (half of the halving), its market capitalization will continue to rise even if the price is stable.

Bitcoin’s share in the cryptocurrency market has been declining in recent months. While Bitcoin’s market dominance was 33% in the past, it typically hovered around 65% between late 2019 and early 2020. On September 14, however, it fell to a recent low of 57%.

But Bitcoin’s growing market capitalization has helped boost its market share. Since then, it has risen to 64%, comfortably supporting two-thirds of the entire cryptocurrency market.

Bitcoin vs altcoin market caps

Looking at the other coins in the top 10, they are split between those that performed great in 2017 and are struggling to return to their previous highs and those that broke new ground in 2020 and saw new all-time highs.

Both Ethereum and XRP are still a long way off the all-time highs of their market capitalization. Ethereum’s market cap shrank from $ 100 billion to $ 52 billion, a decline of 48%. XRP’s market capitalization went from $ 140 billion to just $ 11 billion today, down 92%.

Conversely, Chainlink and Binance Coin both hit recent all-time highs and haven’t dropped that far since. Chainlink’s market capitalization hit $ 6.7 billion in August and is now down to $ 5 billion, just 25%. Binance Coin achieved a market cap of $ 5.5 billion in June and was down to just $ 4 billion, down 27%.

So while some coins have seen their size decrease since 2017 and others have come out of nowhere to break new highs, Bitcoin is one of the few to have fallen from a high peak and has continued to regain most of its size. It may not be a consistent store of value, but it is certainly resilient.