It is estimated that the cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies increased in early 2023 after the downfall in November 2022 due to FTX. That value declined in the summer of 2023, however, as international uncertainty grew over a potential recession. Bitcoin's market cap comprised the majority of the overall market capitalization. What is market cap? Market capitalization is a financial measure typically used for publicly traded firms, computed by multiplying the share price by the number of outstanding shares. However, cryptocurrency analysts calculate it as the price of the virtual currencies times the number of coins in the market. This gives cryptocurrency investors an idea of the overall market size, and watching the evolution of the measure tells how much money is flowing in or out of each cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency as an investment The price of Bitcoin has been erratic, and most other cryptocurrencies follow its larger price swings. This volatility attracts investors who hope to buy when the price is low and sell at its peak, turning a profit. However, this does little for price stability. As such, few firms accept payment in cryptocurrencies. As of June 25, 2025, the cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies reached a value of ******.
Bitcoin's role within the overall cryptocurrency market picked up in 2024, whilst Ethereum lost terrain to currencies like Solana. This according to a metric that compares a coin's market cap relative to the overall crypto market called "dominance". This ratio shows how strong, for example, Bitcoin is compared to all the other cryptocurrencies. A comparison between Bitcoin and multiple other coins reveals that the shape of the crypto market has changed dramatically over time. Bitcoin typically has a dominance of over ** percent, so the interest for analysts lies more in whether Bitcoin's market share has gone up or down when compared to altcoins.
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/privacy-policyhttps://www.mordorintelligence.com/privacy-policy
The Cryptocurrency Market Report Segments the Industry by Transaction Purpose (Payments & Remittances, Trading and Investment Transfers, Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Protocol Flows, and More), by User Type (Retail and Institutional), by Cryptocurrency (BTC, ETH, Ripple, and More), and by Geography (North America, South America, Europe, and More). The Crypto Market Forecasts are Provided in Terms of Value (USD).
https://www.technavio.com/content/privacy-noticehttps://www.technavio.com/content/privacy-notice
Cryptocurrency Market Size 2025-2029
The cryptocurrency market size is valued to increase USD 39.75 billion, at a CAGR of 16.7% from 2024 to 2029. Rising investment in digital assets will drive the cryptocurrency market.
Major Market Trends & Insights
North America dominated the market and accounted for a 48% growth during the forecast period.
By Type - Bitcoin segment was valued at USD 7.57 billion in 2023
By Component - Hardware segment accounted for the largest market revenue share in 2023
Market Size & Forecast
Market Opportunities: USD 313.81 billion
Market Future Opportunities: USD 39749.40 billion
CAGR from 2024 to 2029 : 16.7%
Market Summary
The market represents a dynamic and rapidly evolving ecosystem, driven by core technologies such as blockchain and decentralized finance (DeFi), which have fueled the creation and adoption of various applications and service types. Notably, digital assets have gained increasing acceptance in the retail sector, with major companies like Microsoft, Starbucks, and Tesla integrating cryptocurrencies into their payment systems. However, the market is not without challenges, including the volatility of cryptocurrency values, which can impact investor confidence and regulatory uncertainty. According to Statista, the number of cryptocurrency users worldwide is projected to reach 223 million by 2022, underscoring the growing importance of this market.
Rising investment in digital assets and the potential for new use cases continue to present significant opportunities for innovation and growth.
What will be the Size of the Cryptocurrency Market during the forecast period?
Get Key Insights on Market Forecast (PDF) Request Free Sample
How is the Cryptocurrency Market Segmented ?
The cryptocurrency industry research report provides comprehensive data (region-wise segment analysis), with forecasts and estimates in 'USD billion' for the period 2025-2029, as well as historical data from 2019-2023 for the following segments.
Type
Bitcoin
Ethereum
Others
Ripple
Bitcoin Cash
Cardano
Component
Hardware
Software
Process
Mining
Transaction
Mining
Transaction
End-Use
Trading
E-commerce and Retail
Peer-to-Peer Payment
Remittance
Geography
North America
US
Canada
Europe
Germany
Italy
Switzerland
The Netherlands
UK
APAC
China
Japan
South America
Brazil
Rest of World (ROW)
By Type Insights
The bitcoin segment is estimated to witness significant growth during the forecast period.
Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency with a market capitalization of over USD470 billion, is a decentralized digital currency that operates on a peer-to-peer (P2P) network, bypassing the need for central authorities. Bitcoin's popularity is driven by its use of blockchain technology, which ensures secure, transparent, and immutable transactions through digital signatures and cryptographic hashing. The Bitcoin network faces scalability challenges, requiring ongoing improvements to transaction throughput and mining difficulty to maintain network security. KYC procedures and AML regulations are crucial for regulatory compliance, with exchange protocols implementing strict identity verification processes. Bitcoin's value is influenced by cryptocurrency volatility, with mining pools and consensus mechanisms like Proof of Work and Proof of Stake contributing to the creation and distribution of new coins.
Wallet security is paramount, with hardware wallets and cold storage providing enhanced security compared to software wallets. Decentralized exchanges and smart contracts, enabled by the Ethereum blockchain and public key cryptography, offer privacy protocols and zero-knowledge proofs to ensure secure transactions. The market is continually evolving, with ongoing activities and patterns shaping the landscape. Approximately 8% of Americans engage in cryptocurrency trading, with stablecoins like Tether, USD Coin, Binance USD, and DAI playing a significant role in the market. Despite its volatility, Bitcoin's impact on finance and technology is undeniable.
Request Free Sample
The Bitcoin segment was valued at USD 7.57 billion in 2019 and showed a gradual increase during the forecast period.
Request Free Sample
Regional Analysis
North America is estimated to contribute 48% to the growth of the global market during the forecast period.Technavio's analysts have elaborately explained the regional trends and drivers that shape the market during the forecast period.
See How Cryptocurrency Market Demand is Rising in North America Request Free Sample
The market in North America is experiencing significant growth, driven by the presence of numerous market participants and innovative technological advancements in the region. The burgeoning demand for digital
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
The cryptocurrency market surpassed the barrier of $100 billion market capitalization in June 2017, after months of steady growth. Despite its increasing relevance in the financial world, a comprehensive analysis of the whole system is still lacking, as most studies have focused exclusively on the behaviour of one (Bitcoin) or few cryptocurrencies. Here, we consider the history of the entire market and analyse the behaviour of 1469 cryptocurrencies introduced between April 2013 and May 2017. We reveal that, while new cryptocurrencies appear and disappear continuously and their market capitalization is increasing (super-)exponentially, several statistical properties of the market have been stable for years. These include the number of active cryptocurrencies, market share distribution and the turnover of cryptocurrencies. Adopting an ecological perspective, we show that the so-called neutral model of evolution is able to reproduce a number of key empirical observations, despite its simplicity and the assumption of no selective advantage of one cryptocurrency over another. Our results shed light on the properties of the cryptocurrency market and establish a first formal link between ecological modelling and the study of this growing system. We anticipate they will spark further research in this direction.
The global user base of cryptocurrencies increased by nearly *** percent between 2018 and 2020, only to accelerate further in 2022. This is according to calculations from various sources, based on information from trading platforms and on-chain wallets. Increasing demographics might initially be attributed to a rise in the number of accounts and improvements in identification. In 2021, however, crypto adoption continued as companies like Tesla and Mastercard announced their interest in cryptocurrency. Consumers in Africa, Asia, and South America were most likely to be owners of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, in 2022. How many of these users have Bitcoin? User figures for individual cryptocurrencies are unavailable. Bitcoin, for instance, was created not to be tracked by banks and governments. What comes closest is the trading volume of Bitcoin against domestic fiat currencies. The source assumed, however, that UK residents were the most likely to make Bitcoin transactions with British pounds. This assumption might not be accurate for popular fiat currencies worldwide. Moreover, coins such as Tether or Binance Coin - referred to as "stablecoins"—are" often used to buy and sell Bitcoin. Those coins were not included in that particular statistic. Wallet usage declined Total crypto wallet downloads were significantly lower in 2022 than in 2021. The number of downloads of Coinbase, Blockchain.com, and MetaMask, among others, declined as the market hit a "crypto winter" over the year. The crypto market also suffered bad press when FTX, one of the largest crypto exchanges based on market share, collapsed in November 2022. Binance, on the other hand, regained some of the market share it had lost between September and October 2022, growing by *** percentage points in November. As of 2025, the highest forecast for the global user base of cryptocurrencies is projected to reach *** million.
https://www.ycharts.com/termshttps://www.ycharts.com/terms
View daily updates and historical trends for Bitcoin Market Cap. Source: Blockchain.com. Track economic data with YCharts analytics.
By 2025, the Bitcoin market cap had grown to over ***** billion USD as the cryptocurrency kept growing. Market capitalization is calculated by multiplying the total number of Bitcoins in circulation by the Bitcoin price. The Bitcoin market capitalization increased from approximately *** billion U.S. dollars in 2013 to several times this amount since its surge in popularity. Dominance The Bitcoin market cap takes up a significant portion of the overall cryptocurrency market cap. This is referred to as "dominance". Within the crypto world, this so-called "dominance" ratio is one of the oldest and most investigated metrics available. It measures the coin's market cap relative to the overall crypto market — effectively showing how strong Bitcoin compared to all the other cryptocurrencies that are not BTC, called "altcoins". The Bitcoin dominance was above ** percent. Maximum supply and scarcity Bitcoin is unusual from other cryptocurrencies in that its maximum supply is getting closer. By 2025, well over ** million out of all 21 million possible Bitcoin had been created. Bitcoin's supply is expected to reach its maximum around the year 2140, likely making mining more energy-intensive.
https://www.techsciresearch.com/privacy-policy.aspxhttps://www.techsciresearch.com/privacy-policy.aspx
Cryptocurrency Market By Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2018-2028, Segmented By Type, By End User, By Region, Competition Forecast and Opportunities
Pages | 110 |
Market Size | |
Forecast Market Size | |
CAGR | |
Fastest Growing Segment | |
Largest Market | |
Key Players |
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
License information was derived automatically
Cryptocurrency historical datasets from January 2012 (if available) to October 2021 were obtained and integrated from various sources and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) including Yahoo Finance, Cryptodownload, CoinMarketCap, various Kaggle datasets, and multiple APIs. While these datasets used various formats of time (e.g., minutes, hours, days), in order to integrate the datasets days format was used for in this research study. The integrated cryptocurrency historical datasets for 80 cryptocurrencies including but not limited to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Binance Coin (BNB), Cardano (ADA), Tether (USDT), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL), Polkadot (DOT), USD Coin (USDC), Dogecoin (DOGE), Tron (TRX), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), EOS (EOS), Cosmos (ATOM), Stellar (XLM), Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC), Uniswap (UNI), Terra (LUNA), SHIBA INU (SHIB), and 60 more cryptocurrencies were uploaded in this online Mendeley data repository. Although the primary attribute of including the mentioned cryptocurrencies was the Market Capitalization, a subject matter expert i.e., a professional trader has also guided the initial selection of the cryptocurrencies by analyzing various indicators such as Relative Strength Index (RSI), Moving Average Convergence/Divergence (MACD), MYC Signals, Bollinger Bands, Fibonacci Retracement, Stochastic Oscillator and Ichimoku Cloud. The primary features of this dataset that were used as the decision-making criteria of the CLUS-MCDA II approach are Timestamps, Open, High, Low, Closed, Volume (Currency), % Change (7 days and 24 hours), Market Cap and Weighted Price values. The available excel and CSV files in this data set are just part of the integrated data and other databases, datasets and API References that was used in this study are as follows: [1] https://finance.yahoo.com/ [2] https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/ [3] https://cryptodatadownload.com/ [4] https://kaggle.com/philmohun/cryptocurrency-financial-data [5] https://kaggle.com/deepshah16/meme-cryptocurrency-historical-data [6] https://kaggle.com/sudalairajkumar/cryptocurrencypricehistory [7] https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/data/price?fsym=BTC&tsyms=USD [8] https://min-api.cryptocompare.com/ [9] https://p.nomics.com/cryptocurrency-bitcoin-api [10] https://www.coinapi.io/ [11] https://www.coingecko.com/en/api [12] https://cryptowat.ch/ [13] https://www.alphavantage.co/ This dataset is part of the CLUS-MCDA (Cluster analysis for improving Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis) and CLUS-MCDAII Project: https://aimaghsoodi.github.io/CLUSMCDA-R-Package/ https://github.com/Aimaghsoodi/CLUS-MCDA-II https://github.com/azadkavian/CLUS-MCDA
https://www.cognitivemarketresearch.com/privacy-policyhttps://www.cognitivemarketresearch.com/privacy-policy
According to Cognitive Market Research, the global blockchain market size is USD 7.4. billion in 2024 and will expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 66.2% from 2024 to 2031. Market Dynamics of Blockchain Market
Key Drivers for Blockchain Market
Greater need for transparency- The demand for blockchain is driven because it is possible for everyone in the network to see the history of every transaction in real time; blockchain provides unrivaled transparency. Particularly in the banking, real estate, and law sectors, blockchain technology has the potential to improve operations, cut costs, and eliminate intermediaries in financial transactions.
One major factor in blockchain’s market increasing popularity is the cryptocurrency market.
Key Restraints for Blockchain Market
The market can face significant challenges in the coming years due to a lack of knowledge; existing legacy systems can be difficult and expensive to integrate with the blockchain market.
Another factor that restricts the market’s expansion is the presence of rigid government requirements and complicated systems.
Introduction of the Blockchain Market
Blockchain is a decentralized database system that enables immutable, worldwide storage of data across thousands of machines with near-real-time visibility into all network transactions. The market is expected to be driven by secure and transparent transactions, which are the main drivers of the blockchain market and are affecting many different businesses. Industries such as healthcare, supply chains, and finance are driving the use of blockchain technology due to its enhanced traceability, transparency, and security features. Also contributing to the market’s expansion are developments such as the proliferation of digital currencies and the increasing funding for blockchain businesses. The demand for more openness and security is propelling the blockchain business because the former guarantees the authenticity of data, and the latter makes efficient analysis possible. One of the main reasons the blockchain business is predicted to grow in the next years is the increasing number of connected devices.
https://www.mordorintelligence.com/privacy-policyhttps://www.mordorintelligence.com/privacy-policy
The Crypto Asset Management Market report segments the industry into By Type (Solutions, Services), By Deployment Mode (Cloud, On-Premise), By End-User Industry (BFSI, Retail & E-Commerce, Media & Entertainment, Other End-User Industries (Healthcare, Travel & Hospitality)), and Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Rest of the World). Five years of historical data and market forecasts are included.
https://cdla.io/permissive-1-0/https://cdla.io/permissive-1-0/
About this dataset As cryptocurrency markets have gained prominence, individuals and organizations have shown an increased fascination with crafting automated trading strategies. The creation of algorithmic trading approaches, though, necessitates rigorous backtesting to ascertain their profitability. Consequently, the cornerstone of any triumphant algorithmic trading strategy lies in the availability of meticulously detailed historical trading data. This dataset will provide you a deeper understanding of working with this type of financial security, it provides you with open, high, low, close (OHLC) information, recorded at 1-hour intervals (not very high-velocity data), encompassing a multitude of cryptocurrency pairs. This data resource is invaluable for those seeking to devise and refine automated trading systems, data analysis, or predictions.
Content This dataset contains the historical trading data (OHLC) of 14 crypto securities at 1 1-hour resolution. The source of this data is Coindesk. The data in the CSV files is refined and cleaned for easier interpretation.
The data is free to use.
CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedicationhttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/
License information was derived automatically
Investment cannot be separated from the level of return and risk inherent in assets. Today, investment instruments are not only stocks, currencies, bonds, deposits, savings and others. The beginning of Bitcoin’s emergence as a pioneer of Cryptocurrency was in 2009. Crypto assets are emerging rapidly and are accompanied by an increase in the number of transactions each period. The growth in the market capitalization value of crypto assets has also grown significantly. During COVID-19, many investments, such as stocks, experienced a decline due to market uncertainty. The results of this study prove that with the existence of COVID-19, the crypto market is not affected. Crypto is an attraction characterized by a high degree of fluctuation, and there is no limit to transactions in the open market 24 hours to trade. The Cryptocurrency market is currently a market that can provide short-term benefits to risk-taking investors, while the market in other investment instruments is declining. 78% of the value capitalization of the top 200 cryptocurrencies is represented by the top 9 cryptos used as samples in this study. So that if there is a decrease in these 9 cryptos, it will also have an impact on the overall capitalization value of crypto in the market. The future development of Cryptocurrencies will no longer be digital assets traded with many speculators who can control prices, it can even be digital money that can be used worldwide without any transaction fees and is controlled on a blockchain system. (2023-01-12)
https://www.rootsanalysis.com/privacy.htmlhttps://www.rootsanalysis.com/privacy.html
The cryptocurrency market size is predicted to reach $3.33 billion in 2024 to $11.07 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 11.54% from 2024 to 2035
https://www.emergenresearch.com/privacy-policyhttps://www.emergenresearch.com/privacy-policy
The global Cryptocurrency or crypto market size reached USD 927.4 Million in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 2411.0 Million in 2030 registering a CAGR of 11.1%. Cryptocurrency market growth is primarily driven owing to increasing focus on mitigating financial crisis, increasing need for operationa...
https://www.ibisworld.com/about/termsofuse/https://www.ibisworld.com/about/termsofuse/
The Cryptocurrency Exchanges industry shifted from being in the red to the black in recent years. Initially, cryptocurrency exchanges generated little revenue, as the concept of cryptocurrency was still in its infancy. Many local exchanges recorded operating losses and relied on external funding or capital sources. Nonetheless, the cryptocurrency boom, spurred by rising adoption and increased visibility on social media platforms, including posts from Elon Musk, turned things around in the two years through 2021-22. This boom was a milestone for the industry as demand for cryptocurrencies reached new peaks and raised awareness of cryptocurrencies as an asset class. Corporations like Tesla, Square and MicroStrategy began buying Bitcoin, stirring institutional interest in cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrency exchange revenue is expected to grow at an annualised 2.2% over the five years through 2024-25 to $470.2 million. This includes an anticipated 11.0% spike in 2024-25 attributable to higher acceptance of cryptocurrencies and a more transparent regulatory framework. The Cryptocurrency Exchanges industry faces significant challenges like regulatory uncertainties, market volatility and cybersecurity threats. In recent years, multiple scandals have been detrimental to cryptocurrency exchanges and reduced investors’ confidence in them and cryptocurrencies. This includes the notorious FTX scandal, where the company’s founder misused clients’ funds to purchase luxury properties in the Bahamas and make huge political donations. This has elevated the Australian Government’s commitment to regulate the crypto industry in order to safeguard retail investors. Nonetheless, regulator crackdowns and uncertainty have weighed on industry revenue as investors become wary of potential risks. Beyond the controversies, advancements in blockchain technology, widespread acceptance of digital currencies and a growing range of products are set to contribute to the performance of cryptocurrency exchanges. The Federal Government will continue developing regulatory frameworks poised to enhance industry stability and credibility, drawing in more investors. This will benefit Australian crypto exchanges in the long run, as it helps foster trust. Cryptocurrency exchange revenue is forecast to continue growing strongly at an annualised 3.5% through 2029-30, to $557.1 million.
https://dataintelo.com/privacy-and-policyhttps://dataintelo.com/privacy-and-policy
As of 2023, the global digital and crypto currency market size is estimated at USD 2.3 trillion, and it is projected to grow to USD 19.7 trillion by 2032, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.8%. This remarkable growth can be attributed to several factors, including the increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies for various applications, advancements in blockchain technology, and the growing acceptance of digital currencies by institutional investors.
One of the primary growth factors driving the digital and crypto currency market is the increasing mainstream acceptance and adoption of cryptocurrencies. Over the past decade, digital currencies have transitioned from being a niche financial instrument to a widely recognized asset class. Major corporations, including Tesla and Square, have invested in cryptocurrencies, thereby legitimizing their use and boosting market confidence. Additionally, the acceptance of digital currencies as a means of payment by various online and offline merchants has expanded their utility, further propelling market growth.
The rapid advancements in blockchain technology also play a crucial role in the market's expansion. Blockchain, the underlying technology for most cryptocurrencies, offers a decentralized and secure way of conducting transactions, which is highly appealing in an era of increasing cyber threats and data breaches. Innovations such as smart contracts and decentralized finance (DeFi) have opened new avenues for the application of blockchain technology, thereby driving the demand for digital currencies.
Another significant growth factor is the increasing interest from institutional investors. Hedge funds, venture capital firms, and even traditional banks are now investing in cryptocurrencies, either directly or through financial instruments such as futures and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This influx of institutional capital not only provides liquidity to the market but also adds a layer of credibility, encouraging more retail investors to participate. The regulatory environment is also becoming more favorable, with several countries implementing frameworks to govern the use and trading of digital currencies, thereby reducing uncertainty and fostering market growth.
Regionally, North America holds a significant share of the global digital and crypto currency market, driven by technological advancements and a favorable regulatory environment. Asia-Pacific is also emerging as a lucrative market, with countries like Japan and South Korea taking proactive regulatory measures to integrate digital currencies into their financial systems. Europe follows closely, with increasing adoption in countries such as Germany and the UK. Meanwhile, Latin America and the Middle East & Africa are slowly catching up, driven by increasing internet penetration and the need for financial inclusion.
As the digital and crypto currency market continues to evolve, the emergence of specialized platforms like the Crypto IRA Platform is gaining traction among investors. These platforms offer a unique opportunity for individuals to include cryptocurrencies in their retirement portfolios, providing a diversified investment strategy. The Crypto IRA Platform allows users to invest in a range of digital currencies, offering tax advantages similar to traditional IRAs. This innovation is particularly appealing to tech-savvy investors looking to capitalize on the growth potential of digital assets while planning for their future. By integrating cryptocurrencies into retirement accounts, the Crypto IRA Platform is helping to drive the mainstream adoption of digital currencies, offering a new avenue for long-term investment strategies.
The digital and crypto currency market can be segmented by type into Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, and others. Bitcoin, the first and most well-known cryptocurrency, continues to dominate the market. Its market capitalization dwarfs that of any other digital currency, making it the most widely accepted and used. Bitcoin's popularity is due to its first-mover advantage, robust security features, and wide acceptance by merchants and financial institutions. However, its scalability issues and high transaction fees remain challenges that need to be addressed.
Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, offers more than just a digital currency. Its blockchain en
How many cryptocurrencies are there? In short, there were over ***** as of August 2025, although there were many more digital coins in the early months of 2022. Note, however, that a large portion of cryptocurrencies might not be that significant. There are other estimates of roughly ****** cryptocurrencies existing, but most of these are either inactive or discontinued. Due to how open the creation process of a cryptocurrency is, it is relatively easy to make one. Indeed, the top 20 cryptocurrencies make up nearly ** percent of the total market. Why are there thousands of cryptocurrencies? Any private individual or company that knows how to write a program on a blockchain can technically create a cryptocurrency. That blockchain can be an existing one. Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain are popular blockchain platforms for such ends, including smart contracts within Decentralized Finance (DeFi). The ease of crypto creation allows some individuals to find solutions to real-world payment problems while others hope to make a quick profit. This explains why some crypto lack utility. Meme coins such as Dogecoin - named after a Japanese dog species - are an infamous example, with Dogecoin's creator coming out and stating the coin started as a joke. The many types of cryptocurrency Meme coins are but one group of cryptocurrencies. Other types include altcoins, utility tokens, governance tokens, and stablecoins. Altcoins are often measured against Bitcoin, as this refers to all crypto that followed Bitcoin - the first digital currency ever created. Utility tokens and governance tokens are somewhat connected to NFTs and the metaverse. A specific example is the MANA cryptocurrency, which allows real estate purchases in the Decentraland metaverse. Stablecoins refer to the likes of Tether, which are pegged to a real-world asset like the U.S. dollar. Such coins are meant to be less volatile than regular cryptocurrency.
The Bitcoin (BTC) price again reached an all-time high in 2025, as values exceeded over 115,970.58 USD on September 14, 2025. Price hikes in early 2025 were connected to the approval of Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, while previous hikes in 2021 were due to events involving Tesla and Coinbase, respectively. Tesla's announcement in March 2021 that it had acquired 1.5 billion U.S. dollars' worth of the digital coin, for example, as well as the IPO of the U.S.'s biggest crypto exchange, fueled mass interest. The market was noticeably different by the end of 2022, however, after another crypto exchange, FTX, filed for bankruptcy.Is the world running out of Bitcoin?Unlike fiat currency like the U.S. dollar - as the Federal Reserve can simply decide to print more banknotes - Bitcoin's supply is finite: BTC has a maximum supply embedded in its design, of which roughly 89 percent had been reached in April 2021. It is believed that Bitcoin will run out by 2040, despite more powerful mining equipment. This is because mining becomes exponentially more difficult and power-hungry every four years, a part of Bitcoin's original design. Because of this, a Bitcoin mining transaction could equal the energy consumption of a small country in 2021.Bitcoin's price outlook: a potential bubble?Cryptocurrencies have few metrics available that allow for forecasting, if only because it is rumored that only a few cryptocurrency holders own a large portion of the available supply. These large holders - referred to as 'whales'-are' said to make up two percent of anonymous ownership accounts, while owning roughly 92 percent of BTC. On top of this, most people who use cryptocurrency-related services worldwide are retail clients rather than institutional investors. This means outlooks on whether Bitcoin prices will fall or grow are difficult to measure, as movements from one large whale are already having a significant impact on this market.
It is estimated that the cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies increased in early 2023 after the downfall in November 2022 due to FTX. That value declined in the summer of 2023, however, as international uncertainty grew over a potential recession. Bitcoin's market cap comprised the majority of the overall market capitalization. What is market cap? Market capitalization is a financial measure typically used for publicly traded firms, computed by multiplying the share price by the number of outstanding shares. However, cryptocurrency analysts calculate it as the price of the virtual currencies times the number of coins in the market. This gives cryptocurrency investors an idea of the overall market size, and watching the evolution of the measure tells how much money is flowing in or out of each cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency as an investment The price of Bitcoin has been erratic, and most other cryptocurrencies follow its larger price swings. This volatility attracts investors who hope to buy when the price is low and sell at its peak, turning a profit. However, this does little for price stability. As such, few firms accept payment in cryptocurrencies. As of June 25, 2025, the cumulative market cap of cryptocurrencies reached a value of ******.