Bitcoins Market Cap Is Now More Than Mastercard and Visa Combined

Bitcoin's (BTC) price dropped on Thursday, along with U.S. stocks and oil prices, as Treasury yields reached their highest levels in a year. Bitcoin briefly hit $60,000 on Thursday morning but was unable to sustain that price volume.

Bitcoin's market capitalization has already exceeded the combined market capitalization of Visa and Mastercard. The largest payment networks, Visa and Mastercard, have a combined market cap of $871 billion, which is now significantly less than Bitcoin.

When Bitcoin soared to a record peak of US$61,700 last week, its market cap reached $1.15 trillion, surpassing the total market capitalization of the world's three largest banks. The combined market capitalization of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is $1.08 trillion.

While an increasing number of investors believe bitcoin may be a successful inflation hedge, the largest cryptocurrency is also seen as a risky asset. Pundits have recently cautioned that higher bond yields, which are traditionally viewed as a safe investment, can reduce the attractiveness of bets on riskier assets such as stocks and bitcoin.

According to data collected by Compound Capital Advisors CEO Charlie Bilello, over the last ten years, the world's largest cryptocurrency has outperformed other asset groups by at least a factor of ten.

In addition, Bitcoin has only experienced two annualized losses in its lifetime, with losses of 58 percent and 73 percent in 2014 and 2018, respectively.