The market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, as tracked by CoinMarketCap, has exceeded that of the world’s most valuable company Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL).
What Happened: The global cryptocurrency market cap stood at $2.243 trillion at press time, which is more than the iPhone maker’s $2.203 trillion valuation, as defined by its outstanding stock.
Apple is the world's most valuable publicly-listed company.
Cryptocurrencies have already eclipsed the second most valuable company by market cap, Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) is worth $1.95 trillion.
Together cryptocurrencies are also more valuable than Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon.com, Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN), and Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA).
The apex cryptocurrency, BItcoin (BTC), has a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion. BTC traded 5.33% higher at $63,860.05 at press time, while the runner’s up in terms of market cap, Ethereum (ETH) was up 9.35% at $2,370.58.
Both BTC and ETH touched all-time highs on Monday, and have continued to run up since. BTC touched its latest all-time high of $63,835.01 on Monday, while ETH charted another high around press time Tuesday of $2,355.79.
See also: Best Cryptocurrency Apps
Why It Matters: The cryptocurrency market cap is swelling as the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States, Coinbase Global, Inc (NASDAQ:COIN) prepares to list on Wednesday.
Coinbase has been assigned a reference price of $250 per share by Nasdaq, which values the exchange at 65.3 billion, a number lower than the $89.5 billion figure arrived at as a result of an earlier private market auction.
Even though BTC is hovering near all-time high levels, it is beginning to lose grip over the cryptocurrency market in terms of market cap dominance. ETH market dominance stood at 12.03% on Tuesday.
Other cryptocurrencies, which are called altcoins, are also helping push up the worth of the global cryptocurrency pack.
However, will the cryptocurrency market cap continue to exceed Apple’s in the medium term is questionable. Wedbush analyst Dan Ives believes Apple will hit a $3 trillion market cap by year-end.
Price Action: Apple shares closed nearly 2.4% higher at $134.43 on Tuesday in the regular session and fell nearly 0.2% in after-hours trading.
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