Is Crypto Really Worth $3 Trillion? I Ran the Numbers.
The potential of digital currencies is far greater than any one company today, but the risk is far higher.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have exploded higher.
Photographer: Chris McGrath/Getty Images
The total value of all cryptocurrency assets has just exceeded $3 trillion, according to Bloomberg News. It’s such a big number that it needs some context to be meaningful. Consider Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc., which have market capitalizations that recently topped $2.5 trillion. So, the entire crypto sector is around 20% more valuable than the equity of the two biggest tech companies.
The previous crypto bull run peaked at the end of 2017 at about $800 billion, also about 20% higher than Microsoft and Apple at the time. Over the following year, crypto crashed almost 90%, while Microsoft, Apple and the Nasdaq 100 Index didn’t change much. By December 2018, crypto was worth only a bit more than 10% of the largest tech companies. But over the next three years, crypto recouped the lost ground and is back at its peak valuation compared to tech companies.