Bitcoin’s $132 billion market cap might be a far cry from its 2017 all-time high, but it doesn’t mean it’s not playing in the big leagues. According to data from the CIA, Bitcoin’s current market cap makes it the 34th largest economy in terms of M1 money supply, just below the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and above Turkey.
Bitcoin’s current market cap shouldn’t be shrugged off
Few assets in the history of the world have been so widely discussed as Bitcoin has. With the world seemingly divided between those believing it was the future of money and those that see it as nothing more than a Ponzi scheme, it’s often hard to put Bitcoin’s true value in perspective.
Most analysis critical of Bitcoin compares its current value to its peak in December 2017, when the world’s largest cryptocurrency briefly reached $20,000 in price and achieved a market cap of almost half a trillion dollars.
When its current price, hovering around $7,100, is compared to the enormous gains the coin saw in the last few months of 2017, it seems like a faint shadow of its former glory.
However, there is a large community that sees Bitcoin through a different lens and instead of comparing it to its former self, compares it with the very things it set out to disrupt.
Bitcoin’s M1 monetary supply larger than Turkey’s
Bitcoin’s $132 billion market cap isn’t something that should be shrugged off. According to Jameson Lopp, the CTO of Casa, it means that Bitcoin’s isn’t a small niche market anymore and it’s finally playing in the major league.
Lopp shared a screengrab from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) website, where 194 countries were ranked according to their M1 money supply. The CIA defines the M1 money supply as the “total quantity of currency in circulation (notes and coins) plus demand deposits denominated in the national currency.”
According to the list, the “country” with the biggest stock of M1 money is the European Union with $8.77 trillion. It’s followed by China with $7.94 trillion and Japan with $6.42 trillion. The U.S. ranked fourth with $3.62 trillion.
The most surprising thing about the list, however, is Bitcoin’s place in it. Lopp shared an edited screengrab where he showed Bitcoin’s $132 billion market cap means it occupies the 34th position on the list, below the United Arab Emirates with an M1 supply of $132 billion and above Turkey with $122 billion.
“During 2019 Bitcoin rose from 49th to 34th position in terms of M1 money supply,” Lopp tweeted.
Another thing worth noting is the fact that Bitcoin rose 15 positions when compared to last year, which goes to show that, in the grand scheme of things, its current bear market actually bears very little weight.
