Bitcoin Market Cap Hits New All-Time High, Overtakes Saudi Arabia's GDP And Meta's Valuation, Igniting New Altcoin Season

Bitcoin Market Cap Hits New All-Time High, Overtakes Saudi Arabia’s GDP And Meta’s Valuation, Igniting New Altcoin Season

BySteven Walgenbach

Updated: 05 March 2024

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Bitcoin’s market capitalization surged to a new all-time high (ATH) of $1.303 trillion as the king of cryptos overtook Meta’s valuation and the gross domestic product (GDP) of Saudi Arabia, igniting a new altcoin season in the process.

The Bitcoin price rose 2.5% to trade at $66,736 as of 4.15 a.m. EST, and has now skyrocketed 56% in a month. It had earlier surged to $68,770, the highest level since 2021.

”There are no sellers.” said Markus Thielen, head of research at 10X. “Everybody will be astonished by Bitcoin’s price action this week.”

BTC’s Market Cap Higher Than Meta’s Valuation, Saudi Arabia’s GDP

The surge has taken Bitcoin’s market cap roaring past the GDPs of several countries, including Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Switzerland. Saudi Arabia’s GDP stands at just over $1.108 trillion, while the Netherlands and Switzerland have GDPs of $991 billion and $808 billion, respectively.

BTC has also become more valuable than the technology giant Meta, with data from Yahoo Finance showing the social network company’s market cap at $1.281 trillion.

Bitcoin Pump Ignites An Altcoin Season

BTC’s bullish momentum has also buoyed the rest of the crypto market. Data from TradingView shows that the collective market cap for altcoins has surged 44% so far this year, and 5% in the past week alone to stand at $1.116 trillion.

Daily chart for the altcoin market cap (Source: TradingView)

The meme coin market has also come alive, seeing its valuation soar almost 18% in the past day of trading to total $62 billion. The Shiba Inu (SHIB) price has rocketed 272% in a week, Myro (MYRO) has skyrocketed 245% and Pepe (PEP) has soared 237%.

New meme coins are benefitting from the upsurge as well with hot ICOs including Scotty the AI, Meme Kombat, and Sponge V2 all seeing surging inflows in the past week, while newly launched Solana token Smog has soared 114%.

Bitcoin Rally Fueled By Booming ETF Market, BTC Supply Crunch

Demand from spot Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds) launched in January are a key driver of Bitcoin’s surge.

The higher the BTC price climbs, the more confident investors feel, said Thielen, noting that ETFs are now moving beyond the US with BlackRock’s recent launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF in Brazil.

#Bitcoin at $68k! 😎 pic.twitter.com/LTmtEl8rcC

— CoinMarketCap (@CoinMarketCap) March 5, 2024

Thielen’s bullish outlook on Bitcoin is supported by the sizable decline of 63,000 bitcoins held on exchange platforms as demand outstrips supply. Coinbase, the leading crypto exchange in the U.S., saw its BTC reserves drop from 400,000 to 372,000 in just one month.