Bitcoin’s (BTC) surge past initial resistance levels to new all-time highs last week led the cryptocurrency to become the world’s seventh-largest asset by market capitalization, a sign that it has gone mainstream.
According to a Bitfinex report, BTC is now competing with Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Nvidia (NVDA), Google (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), and Gold (GOLD). The ascent drove the cryptocurrency to surpass Silver (SILVER), which currently sits ninth, and Saudi Aramco, which is eighth.
BTC Becomes 8th Largest Asset
During the sell-off before the United States presidential election, BTC fell to $66,880. After Donald Trump’s victory, the digital asset rallied 39.5% through the $90,000 psychological level to an all-time high of $93,477 (CoinGecko).
Bitfinex said this surge drove bitcoin’s market capitalization to over $1.8 trillion for the first time in history, enabling the cryptocurrency to flip silver on the list of the world’s largest traded assets for the second time. Analysts also found that the rally is bitcoin’s largest nine-day price increase since January 2021 and possibly marks one of the biggest inflows into any asset in history.
“Given that bitcoin’s market capitalization in January 2021 was just $450 billion, it takes significantly more capital today to effect such a change in price. We believe this recent move probably represents the largest volume of capital flowing into Bitcoin over such a short time,” Bitfinex stated.
Bitcoin ETFs to Flip Gold ETFs
With bitcoin surpassing silver in the world’s largest traded assets list, Bitfinex believes gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) may be the next victim.
By November 19, the United States spot Bitcoin ETF market held more than $84 billion in assets under management (AUM), representing roughly 66% of gold ETFs’ AUM. The current average daily inflows into the Bitcoin ETFs suggest that they could surpass the AUM of gold ETFs within the next couple of months.
Market experts previously predicted that it could take two to five years for Bitcoin ETFs to flip gold ETFs; however, the level of growth experienced by the former indicates that the feat is no longer far-fetched.
Interestingly, the AUM of BlackRockʼs iShares Bitcoin ETF (IBIT) has already exceeded the company’s iShares Gold ETF (IAU), the world’s second-largest gold ETF. It took IAU 20 years to attain this feat, but IBIT crushed the milestone within just 10 months.
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