Bitcoin (BTC) price topped $ 25,000 on December 25, hit a new all-time high of $ 25,020 with Bitstamp, and surpassed Visa’s market cap in a historic milestone.
Visa, the financial services giant, is valued at $ 460.06 billion, according to Yahoo Finance. As of December 26th, Bitcoin is conveniently hovering above $ 462 billion.
Market capitalization of the top 13 companies. Source: Companiesmarketcap.com
But isn’t Visa and Bitcoin a suitable comparison?
Bitcoin is essentially a peer-to-peer software protocol while Visa is a for-profit company. Some may argue that a head-to-head comparison between the two is inappropriate because they are fundamentally different.
But Bitcoin, beating Visa’s rating, is mostly symbolic and Bitcoin’s current market cap would theoretically make it the thirteenth largest company in the world.
Throughout 2020, institutional interest in Bitcoin has increased. At a point where institutional demand for Bitcoin continues to grow exponentially, Visa’s exceeding market cap could further boost institutions’ confidence in Bitcoin.
More institutions and accredited investors have become involved in Bitcoin through Grayscale and the CME Bitcoin Futures market. Grayscale’s assets under management are nearly $ 17 billion as the open interest of the CME bitcoin futures market is consistently above $ 1 billion.
Visa has also shown more craze for crypto in the past few months after Square and PayPal endorsed Bitcoin.
For example, Wirex, the issuer of crypto Visa debit cards, became a major member of Visa in Europe. Cuy Sheffield, Senior Director and Head of Cryptocurrency at Visa, said:
“Digital currencies have the potential to expand the value of digital payments to greater numbers of people and places. We are excited to partner with innovative fintechs like Wirex to enable their customers to use digital currencies at more than 61 million merchants on the Visa network . “
On-chain data provides clues as to where BTC is headed next
In the near future, traders and on-chain analysts say that Bitcoin’s development remains bullish.
Analysts at Intotheblock identified $ 23,069 and $ 23,377 as the top levels of support for BTC in the near future. They write:
“Bitcoin was able to hold over $ 23,000. The IOMAP indicator supports this premise as it shows a strong level of support in the range between $ 23,069 and $ 23,377.1, where nearly 900,000 addresses previously acquired $ 796,000 BTC. “Bitcoin support levels based on on-chain data. Source: IntoTheBlock
As long as Bitcoin stays above the critical support areas, traders for the cryptocurrency market expect a wider rally.
Michael van de Poppe, a full-time trader on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, expects the total market capitalization for cryptocurrencies to soon hit its all-time high of around $ 780 billion. He said:
“#Crypto’s overall market cap looks extremely bullish as it tested the all time high region. Observable levels are $ 550 billion and $ 450 billion. Each of these regions offers purchase opportunities. If so, the next run will bring the market through ATH. “
