Bitcoin now bigger than Citi & economy of Qatar: 4 super-facts about the 2017 bestseller
As the value of the pioneer cryptocurrency has surpassed the $10,000 level, the amount of bitcoins in circulation has become worth more than some major companies and even countries. Here are some facts about bitcoin.
Larger than corporate giants
According to the PwC rating of the 100 largest companies, with a $167 billion market capitalization, bitcoin is bigger than Citigroup ($165bn), IBM ($164bn), HSBC ($162bn) and Pepsi ($160bn). The virtual currency is much bigger than Unilever ($149bn), Mastercard ($121bn) or Siemens ($117bn).
Larger than some countries
If bitcoin is compared to the Gross Domestic Product of countries, it has surpassed Algeria’s $156 billion and Qatar’s $152 billion. If the digital currency gains another $250, it will become bigger than Iraq. If bitcoin were a country, it would be the 53rd wealthiest nation in the world.
Consumes more energy than 100+ countries
Some 30 terawatt-hours of electro-energy were spent in 2016 on mining bitcoins, according to Digiconomist. If miners were a separate country, it would take 64th place in the world in terms of electricity consumption, something comparable to Oman and Marocco. And this was tracked before the 1,000 percent surge in 2017.
More populous than 100+ countries
The largest bitcoin exchange in the US, Coinbase, added about 100,000 accounts between last Wednesday and Friday — just around Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday — to a total of 13.1 million, CNBC reported. It’s more than the population of Greece, Cuba or Belgium. And we are speaking only about Coinbase users. Last November, there were about 4.9 million users on the American exchange.
