Bitcoin accounts for an ever-greater share of global money as central banks continue to print currency and reduce purchasing power.
Bitcoin (BTC) grew to account for about 1.7% of global money, a figure that includes aggregate M2 money supply data for all major fiat currencies, the largest minor currencies, and gold’s market cap, according to River, a Bitcoin financial services company.
“In 16 years, Bitcoin went up to 1.7% of global money,” River said. The company weighed Bitcoin’s market cap against a $112.9 trillion basket of fiat currencies and $25.1 trillion in hard money, which excluded silver, platinum, and exotic metals like palladium.
The data assumes Bitcoin has a market capitalization of $2.4 trillion, which it topped earlier in August. However, BTC’s current market cap is approximately $2.29 trillion, which brings its total share of global money down to around 1.66% at the time of this writing.
Bitcoin and gold continue to claim a greater share of the global money pie as central banks around the world inflate their fiat currencies through excessive money printing, destroying purchasing power and driving investors to hard money alternatives.
Related: Crypto sentiment returns to Greed as Bitcoin and Ether spike on Fed speech
United States Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell delivered a keynote address at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium in Wyoming on Friday, signaling impending interest rate cuts and continued monetary expansion. Powell said:
“Our policy rate is now 100 basis points (BPS) closer to neutral than it was a year ago, and the stability of the unemployment rate and other labor market measures allows us to proceed carefully as we consider changes to our policy stance.”
The price of Bitcoin surged by over 2% in response to Powell’s speech, hitting a price of about $116,000 per BTC on Friday.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies tend to appreciate during periods of monetary expansion, as the price of digital assets continues to correlate with global liquidity levels.
75% of investors now anticipate an interest rate cut of 25 basis points in September, according to data from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group.
