In April 2021, the Bitcoin market cap reached an all-time high and had grown by over 1,000 billion USD when compared to the summer months. The market capitalization decline since that moment, reaching roughly 600 billion U.S. dollars in June 2021. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the total number of Bitcoins in circulation by the Bitcoin price. The Bitcoin market capitalization increased from approximately one billion U.S. dollars in 2013 to several times this amount since its surge in popularity in 2017.
Bitcoin use among consumers
While its market capitalization grew at an unbelievable rate from 2013 to 2017, the public is only slowly becoming aware of its existence. As many as 25 percent of Americans were still not familiar with bitcoin and as of 2019. While there are over 18 million bitcoins in circulation, there are only 6,674 Bitcoin ATMs around the world. So its physical presence is minimal, and the majority of ATMs are located in the United States.
Bitcoin prices
What makes a bitcoin different from traditional currency is that it is decentralized and no single institution or bank controls the bitcoin network. It is also unique because an account is easy to set up, and it is completely transparent. The bitcoin price index (the average bitcoin price across leading global exchanges) has also increased significantly since its creation, rising from 367 U.S. dollars in January 2016 to a peak of over 13,000 U.S. dollars at the end of December 2017.
