Bitcoin Hits Parity with Tesla: The Rise of Crypto in 2021

Since Satoshi Nakamoto mined the first Bitcoin block on Jan. 3, 2009, the crypto asset has led to substantial gains for investors, particularly with its meteoric rise in recent weeks. As of now, Bitcoin (BTC) is fluctuating between $32,000 and $34,000, similar to the retail price of a Model 3 Tesla, which starts at over $30,000.

“A #bitcoin now buys you a Tesla. So, when will you accept it, @elonmusk?”

Institutional players are also seeing remarkable returns. Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, which made a significant Bitcoin investment of $425 million last August and September, reported that their investment is now worth over $1.2 billion.

Notably, Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s own Bitcoin holdings, assuming he still holds his initial 0.25 BTC, would now be worth approximately $8,100. Bitcoin’s market capitalization is rapidly approaching that of Tesla’s, with Bitcoin becoming the ninth largest asset by market cap at $611 billion, trailing behind Alibaba and Tesla.

Meanwhile, Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of Bitcoin, possesses 1,125,150 BTC, valued significantly above $1 billion for some time. With the current bull run, Nakamoto’s holdings are estimated to bring him among the top 40 richest individuals globally, with a net worth of around $37 billion, just behind British businessman Len Blavatnik according to the Bloomberg billionaire index.

As Bitcoin continues to break new ground, social media chatter has also surged. According to Josh Frank of The TIE, Bitcoin-related tweets have surged past the volumes observed during the 2017 bull run, now exceeding 140,000 tweets with over 70,000 unique Twitter handles engaging in discussions about the cryptocurrency.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is priced at $32,780 and has risen 21% in the past week. The cryptocurrency recently peaked at $34,700, establishing a new all-time high.