The value of all bitcoins, also called the market capitalization, is
$5.1 billion. This number the total number of coins, 12.6 million
coins, multiplied by the price, $407 per coin.
To put this into perspective, Apple is valued at $570 billion
which is more than 100 times more than bitcoin. Google is
worth $380 billion, Facebook is at $180 billion, eBay is at $72
billion, and Coca-Cola is at $170 billion.
Actually, this is a bit like comparing bananas and apples. Stock
companies have value since a stock is a claim on the company’s
profit. If you buy a stock, you’d normally do so only if you
believe the present value of all future dividends is higher than
the share price. Bitcoin pays no dividends, hence from this
perspective it has no value.
Gold and silver have more in common with bitcoin. All serve as
storage of wealth, pay no dividends, and can potentially be used
as money. All the gold in the world is worth about $7,000
billion.
All silver ever mined is “only” worth $920 billion, but about
half of it has been lost. Silver is not only precious, it is also an
industrial metal. Much waste containing silver has never been
recycled and is forever lost.
Other interesting numbers are the new mine supplies of gold,
silver and bitcoin. As you may know, about every ten minutes 25
new bitcoins are minted. Over a day that is $1.5 million worth of
new coins. In 2014 this causes an inflation of 10% of the money
supply, but this number decreases every year.
Gold’s annual mine supply is 2.800 tonnes (90 million troy
ounces) worth $330 million a day. Silver’s mine supply is 790
million troy ounces valued at $44 million a day.
To summarize:
• The market cap of bitcoin is less than one hundredth
those of silver and large companies, and less than one
thousandth that of gold.
• The value of mined bitcoins is about one two-hundredth
that of gold and one thirtieth that of silver.
The price of bitcoin was $407, Gold was $1321, and Silver was
$20.21 at the moment of writing.
