In brief
- Bitcoin has flipped the market cap of Warren Buffett's company.
- That's after Bitcoin hit an all-time high last night.
- Its price has since retreated.
Bitcoin briefly hit an all-time high last night, breaking past $29,000 to set a new ATH of $29,321. Just one night ahead of the New Year, the bull run propelled the price up by 7.35% in the last 24 hours, a continuation of the momentum that has seen it rising by 24.76% in the last week alone.
At the crest of this wave, Bitcoin’s market cap—the sum of its price multiplied by the total number of Bitcoin in circulation—hit $544 billion, flipping the market cap of Class B shares in Berkshire Hathaway, which has a market cap of $538.8 billion, according to metrics site Asset Dash.
Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has previously dismissed Bitcoin as “rat poison squared” and has said cryptocurrencies “will come to a bad ending.” He even told shareholders in 2018 that cryptocurrency trading is “just dementia”.
Paying Buffett off didn’t work, either. Tron CEO Justin Sun paid $4.67 million and waited six months to court Buffet at a charity dinner, gifting him with a Samsung Galaxy Fold device loaded with a single Bitcoin in an attempt to change his mind about cryptocurrencies. But Buffett remained skeptical. That Bitcoin has since almost tripled in value.
Smugness was wiped from traders’ faces later today, when Bitcoin’s market cap slipped below the market cap of Buffett’s company; Bitcoin's price is currently $28,348 and its market cap is $528 billion.
Still, after the Christmas price boom, Bitcoin has comfortably flipped both Visa and Mastercard to become the 11th largest asset by market capitalization, according to Asset Dash. So, although Bitcoin’s market cap has since fallen below Berkshire Hathaway’s, it remains above the two financial service giants and JP Morgan.
Ahead of Bitcoin at ninth, eighth and seventh respectively are Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, Alibaba Group Holding and Tesla. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is an outspoken crypto fan. Over the last weeks, he has posted memes about Bitcoin and tweeted that it’s “almost as bs as fiat money” It seems his loyalties lie with the One True Coin, however: Dogecoin.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice.