Bitcoin market cap overtakes Berkshire Hathaway, soars past $800B

Bitcoin (BTC), the original cryptocurrency, is gaining momentum versus global big-cap stocks as it overtakes the market value of American conglomerate holding company Berkshire Hathaway. BTC market cap has risen above $800 billion on Dec. 4, after nudging past billionaire investor Warren Buffet’s company on Dec. 3.

As Bitcoin surged past $40,000 over the weekend, the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency rose to above $780 billion, just beating Berkshire Hathaway’s $779 billion on Dec. 3.

Berkshire Hathaway’s class A (BRK.A) stock closed the market at $542 on Dec. 1, with a market capitalization of $779 billion, according to data from TradingView. The stock has seen a slight decline recently, slipping around 1.3% over the past five days. Despite the recent drop, Berkshire Hathaway is still up 4.7% over the past 30 days and 14.7% year to date (YTD).

The volatility of BRK.A is nowhere near that of Bitcoin, which surged 20% over the past month and almost 150% YTD, according to data from CoinGecko. The cryptocurrency has been steadily hitting multi-month highs recently, surpassing $41,000 on Dec. 4 for the first time since April 2022.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin’s market cap amounts to $811 billion, or 4% higher than the market value of Berkshire Hathaway. Founded in 1839, ​​Berkshire Hathaway is a multinational conglomerate holding firm headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska, the United States. ​​Berkshire’s main business is insurance, from which it invests in a big portfolio of companies, including Bank of America and Apple.

Cryptocurrency lawyer John Deaton took to X (formerly Twitter) to comment on the news. “That’s a pretty damn big bottle of rat poison,” Deaton wrote, referring to the words of Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, who famously called Bitcoin “rat poison squared” in 2018.

Related: Bitcoin tops $40K for first time in 19 months, Matrixport tips $125K in 2024

According to data from CompaniesMarketCap, Bitcoin is now the 10th biggest asset by market cap, following Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook) and Nvidia, whose market value currently stands at $834 billion and $1.2 trillion, respectively.

Top assets by market cap. Source: CompaniesMarketCap

With Bitcoin’s market cap surging past $800 billion, the cryptocurrency is now 38% short of its all-time high market value posted in November 2021, when BTC price was closing $69,000.

The current bullish action could mark the second time in the history of Bitcoin when its market capitalization would reach $1 trillion. Bitcoin previously broke a $1 trillion market cap in February 2021 at $53,700.

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