Milestone! The market value of Bitcoin exceeded 1 trillion US dollars

Today, the trillion-dollar market value club welcomes a new member: Bitcoin. Now, the total value of bitcoin transactions exceeds $1 trillion.

The price of Bitcoin hit a record high on Friday. According to Coinbase data, the current price of a bitcoin is about $55,000, with a daily increase of more than 6%. In the past six months, the price of Bitcoin has risen by about 360%. At present, there are about 18.6 million bitcoins in circulation around the world. (The maximum number of bitcoins is 21 million. )

Comparing Bitcoin with big companies with high valuations, such as Apple, is not the same type of comparison. However, in terms of its value, only four companies in the United States are worth more than Bitcoin: Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN) and Google owner Alphabet (GOOGL).

Bitcoin is now more than $200 billion ahead of Tesla's current $700 billion, and Tesla's purchase behavior is the main reason for the recent surge in bitcoin prices.

The electric car giant led by Elon Musk announced earlier this month that it now has bitcoin worth $1.5 billion in the company's cash reserve. Tesla also said that it is considering allowing consumers to use Bitcoin to buy Tesla cars. This has led to speculation that other large companies may soon add Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to their balance sheets, because the returns generated by Bitcoin are much higher than bonds and cash in the current market.

Major investors and companies have increased their adoption of Bitcoin, which partly contributed to this move. Bank of New York Mellon, the oldest bank in the United States, announced earlier this month that it would enter this field.

Jim Reid, a research strategist at Deutsche Bank, said in a report, "Bitcoin has begun to become so large that it can become a mainstream demand, because companies and institutions began to set foot in areas that could not be reached a few months ago. More and more institutional support is turning itself into a reliable asset class for many people. "

Investors and entrepreneurs who support Bitcoin celebrated this milestone on social media.

"From white papers to $1 trillion. Bitcoin is swallowing gold. " Cameron Winklevoss, CEO of Gemini Exchange, said on Twitter.

To be sure, not everyone on Wall Street is convinced of the future of Bitcoin. Ken Griffin, founder of Citadel Securities, said on Friday that he was not interested in cryptocurrencies, while researchers at JPMorgan said that the rebound of bitcoin was unsustainable.