Bitcoin has flipped Facebook in market cap, but gold still out in front

Bitcoin has risen above Facebook’s parent company Meta to become the world’s ninth most valuable asset by market cap.

Meta has experienced a disastrous aftermath to its Q4 earnings report over the last few days with a shares sell-off that saw some 25 per cent knocked off its value.

The downward movement means BTC’s market cap of $784bn currently outstrips Meta’s $677bn. Bitcoin has also risen above American multinational Berkshire Hathaway on $705bn, but is still some way off catching Tesla in eighth position with a market cap of $943bn.

Gold remains the undisputed number one asset at $11.4tn, with Apple in second place on $2.8tn.

Bitcoin had slipped off the top ten leader board with a poor performance across December and January. The flagship cryptocurrency was barely clinging above $40,000 and tumbled to $32,933 by January 24.

However, cryptocurrency markets across the board enjoyed a massive uplift on Friday. BTC leapt from $37,324 to close the day at $41,613 – a figure it hasn’t wandered too far north or south of since.

The world’s second-most popular cryptocurrency – Ethereum – also rose from its $2,600 range to spend much of the weekend hanging off $3,000.

Gold’s value is obtained by taking the current price – $1,809 per ounce – and multiplying it by the world’s known ‘above ground’ reserves. These global reserves are estimated to be somewhere in the region of 196,500 metric tonnes.