Bitcoin is now worth more than Visa and Mastercard combined

The largest cryptocurrency also recently beat the world’s three biggest banks by market cap, data confirms.

Bitcoin (BTC) did more than hit $60,000 per coin last week — it also became worth more than the world’s three biggest banks combined.

According to publicly available data, the largest cryptocurrency surpassed the three highest-valued global banking giants by market capItalization.

Bitcoin market cap blasts past financial stalwarts

At its all-time highs of $61,700, Bitcoin’s market cap was roughly $1.15 trillion. The combined market cap of JPMorgan, Bank of America and The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is $1.08 trillion.

The achievements do not stop there — Visa and Mastercard, the biggest payment networks, have a combined market cap of $871 billion, also now significantly less than Bitcoin.

Since then, BTC/USD has seen a slight pullback, bringing its market cap down to $1.03 trillion, still holding the significant trillion-dollar-asset title.

That level was previously tipped by analysts as a likely consolidation zone, something which remains the case after Monday’s dip took Bitcoin back below its previous all-time high set in late February.

Its ascent, others have noted, is impressive — Bitcoin went from zero to $1 trillion in network value 3.6 times faster than Microsoft, for example.

Hot on gold’s heels

Analyzing the market cap data, on-chain analytics resource Ecoinometrics added that as of March 13, Bitcoin equalled 45% of the gold held in investment vehicles and 10% of the physical gold market as a whole.

To eclipse gold entirely — something which is already a topic of debate among market participants — BTC/USD would need to trade at $590,000.

As Cointelegraph reported, meanwhile, both Visa and Mastercard are coming to terms with the need to incorporate Bitcoin in their corporate strategies going forward.