Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market capitalization, will most likely enter next month having a trading price that is significantly lower than its $69,044 all-time high attained on November 10, 2021.
Moreover, its average price for October 2022, which currently stands at $19,443, is nowhere near the $58,051 average it tallied in the same month last year.
To say the highly touted “digital gold” was hit hard by the unpredictable volatility that is known to affect the crypto space is an understatement as Bitcoin continues to bleed.
But even with lower prices and bad performance over the last couple of months, the leader of all digital currencies managed to outrank even the biggest banks in the U.S. including the frontrunner on the list, JPMorgan Chase.
Such a feat is really impressive, considering these financial institutions, more often than not, remain skeptical about Bitcoin and its fellow cryptocurrencies.
Bitcoin Dominates In Terms Of Market Cap
Yesterday, the total market capitalization of Bitcoin reached $374.78 billion, making it the 14th most valuable asset class, according to CompaniesMarketCap.
JPMorgan Chase, a well established financial institution in the U.S. that has successfully earned global reputation, only managed to put itself on the 18th spot with its $349.31 billion market cap.
Source: CompaniesMarketCap
As impressive as that is already, Bitcoin also managed to outperform other U.S. banks in the same category.
Bank of America ($280.26 billion market cap), Wells Fargo ($169.54 billion), Morgan Stanley ($134.57 billion) and Charles Schwab ($130.15 billion) are all included in the top 10 list of largest banks and bank holding companies in terms of market capitalization.
But not even one of them was in close competition to Bitcoin, which also managed to surpass Walmart ($363.93 billion) and Meta Platform (Facebook) ($360.58 billion).
Not A First For Bitcoin
This isn’t a fluke for the digital asset as it managed to pull this kind of performance last year at an even larger scale.
When Bitcoin was trading at $48,481 in February last year, its market cap surged all the way up to $900 billion.
The cryptocurrency managed to surpass the combined market capitalization of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup Inc. during that time.
All of that happened before the digital asset hit its all-time high later that year, catapulting its overall value to even greater heights, peaking at $1.28 trillion.
Source: CompaniesMarketCap
While Bitcoin remains at the mercy of the volatile nature of crypto space, it has proven once again that it has tremendous potential. That, however, is being overshadowed by its dismal performance of late.
At press time, according to tracking from Coingecko, the maiden crypto is changing hands at $19,282, down by 1.1% over the last 24 hours but is up by 1.2% for the past seven days.
Meanwhile, the United States currently has the highest volume of Bitcoin trading in the world, at roughly $1.5 billion. A little over 23 million people in the US currently possess Bitcoin, according to Bankless Times, citing data by PEW.
Around 15% of US adults have purchased or traded cryptocurrency in the last few months. During the transition from 2018 to 2019, the number of Americans who owned cryptocurrency surged, the PEW research shows.
BTC total market cap at $370 billion on the daily chart | Featured image from Game of Life, Chart: TradingView.com
