Bitcoin's Market Cap Is Now Larger Than These 6 Very Well-Known Companies

If you think marijuana stocks have been on a tear over the trailing year, then you haven't seen anything yet. Even though the roughly one dozen largest marijuana stocks have averaged a greater than 100% return over the trailing 12 months, it's cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum that have left weed stocks in the dust.

Bitcoin is perhaps the best-known digital currency, and it's also the largest by market cap. After ending 2016 at $966.60 per coin, bitcoin has seen its value soar to $4,000 per coin as of Aug. 21, 2017. That's better than a 300% return in less than eight months. In fact, it was even greater the previous week when bitcoin hit an all-time intraday high of $4,489.10 per coin. Since its lows in 2015, bitcoin has rallied by more than 1,600%, and in the process the total market cap of bitcoin has soared. With 16,519,100 coins having been mined to date, bitcoin's market cap stands at more than $66 billion. That makes bitcoin larger than six very well-known companies.

2017 Cadillac ATS. Image source: General Motors.

Source: Fool.com