The price of bitcoin crossed another major milestone Friday, as the cryptocurrency’s market value surpassed $1 trillion, according to Coindesk.
The digital currency was reportedly trading at just under $54,000 U.S. per coin Friday as it hit the new level, and rose above $55,000 later in the session for a daily gain of more than 6%, according to Coin Metrics. The price of bitcoin has now gained about 360% over the past six months. Before the recent surge, the digital asset has never traded above $20,000.
The move has been fueled in part by increased adoption of bitcoin by major investors and companies. The oldest bank in the United States, the Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK), announced earlier this month that it was moving into the space. Elon Musk’s Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) converted some of its balance sheet cash into bitcoin earlier this year and said it would start accepting the digital tokens as payment.
Market value is calculated by multiplying the price of bitcoin by the number created. While not a perfect comparison, the $1-trillion market value would make bitcoin’s value greater than all but a handful of the world’s stocks. Tesla, for instance, has a market cap of around $700 billion, while Apple is valued at more than $2 trillion.
Pro-bitcoin investors and entrepreneurs celebrated the milestone on social media.
