The bitcoin price surged this week, reaching the $58,000 level yesterday for the second time in its history. But, even more remarkable than that price high, was the milestone eclipsed once again in its total market capitalization: $1 trillion.
The bitcoin market cap is the measure of the total value of all of its supply — the USD price of a single bitcoin multiplied by the total number of bitcoin in existence. With 18,651,861 BTC released and each bitcoin priced at more than $57,000 at the time of this writing, per Clark Moody Bitcoin, the total market cap is now more than $1.06 trillion.
The market cap first broke $1 trillion on February 19, per CNBC, and bitcoin hit its all-time high price of $58,355 on February 21, according to Clark Moody. The fact that it is hovering around this price level once again just a few weeks later could indicate that new all-time highs are on the horizon.
Though the USD price of a single BTC is often the metric that gets more attention, bitcoin’s market cap can be more informative as a measure of the network’s value. The market cap more directly accounts for the amount of bitcoin that has been mined from its hard-capped total of 21 million. It can also be a helpful way of comparing bitcoin to other asset markets or corporations.
As the BTC price and market cap continue to rise on the back of the asset’s most bullish price run in history, which has been ongoing since March 2020, it’s getting more difficult to parse the specific actions driving price in any given week. But this latest surge may be credited to recent announcements of institutional exposure to bitcoin, a rise in corporate interest in bitcoin mining, progress in fostering a more friendly legislative environment for bitcoin businesses or other recent headlines.