Bitcoin, a once-obscure currency worth just a few pennies, has had a stunning rise over the last 10 years. Today, the currency has solidified its place among the largest financial assets in the world with investors, companies and governments rushing to get a piece as the original cryptocurrency breaks $100,000.
Bitcoin’s yearlong rally has led it to climb up the list of the world’s most valuable financial assets—it is currently No. 7 on the list. With a market cap just shy of $2 trillion, the currency is now worth more than silver and the Saudi Arabian oil company Aramco.
Currently, the only assets that have a market cap greater than Bitcoin are gold, Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google’s parent company Alphabet. Bitcoin’s market cap was sitting around $1.96 trillion on Friday morning, just $165 billion away from Google’s.
“Coupled with the fundamental supply-demand dynamic with the rapid growth of exchange-traded products like Bitcoin ETFs and new institutional investors joining the market, conditions are ripe for new highs,” Thomas Perfumo, head of strategy at Kraken, said in an email.
The recent bull run can be attributed in part to Donald Trump’s decisive victory on Nov. 5, which is expected to result in a looser regulatory climate for crypto companies.
By Friday, the frenzy around Bitcoin had somewhat subsided as the currency was trading around $98,000—down from the all-time high it hit on Wednesday when the price soared above $103,000. Over the past month, Bitcoin has gained 43% and added almost $1 trillion.
This year marked the end of a prolonged crypto winter triggered by the collapse of FTX and other major companies as well as a multitude of scams and lawsuits. The approval of Bitcoin ETFs in January propelled Bitcoin and the rest of the market to new highs before Trump won reelection, promising to support a favorable regulatory environment for cryptocurrencies over the next four years.