Bitcoin Becomes the World’s Biggest Bank

Bitcoin Becomes the World’s Biggest Bank – Trustnodes

Bitcoin has become the largest bank in the world for the first time, overtaking JP Morgan in market cap after it rose above $18,900.

That gave bitcoin a market cap of $350 billion, an all time high, beating JP Morgan’s $349 billion.

Bitcoin becomes world’s biggest bank by market cap, Nov 2020

Some 155 banks are listed, worth a combined nearly $4 trillion, including Citigroup at $107 billion, while Goldman Sachs is at $76 billion.

That makes the comparison slightly unfair as these mentioned banks have trillions in assets under management, with bitcoin’s market cap more comparable to assets under management than stock shares which have dividents.

Yet bitcoin is also a stock in a way in as far as the holder benefits from rising bitcoin usage, which entails rising demand, with profits so instantly and automatically distributed, rather than depending on what some committee decides.

Making this top position in market cap somewhat significant, but also an illustration that bitcoin is still just as big as a stock rather than it rising to an asset class in itself.

Just the art market, for example, is worth trillions. While the crypto asset class as a whole has never surpassed one trillion.

In decentralized assets under management there’s now just $14 billion worth, a rounding error for the likes of BlackRock which recently said bitcoin can replace gold.

Nonetheless bitcoin has now risen to perform some banking services, including lending and borrowing in defi as well as custodying assets while processing payments and facilitating financial services like international trade.

Making it very much a bank of sorts, and at least by one measurement, the biggest in the world.