River, a Bitcoin-focused financial services firm, calculates that Bitcoin's market capitalization equals roughly 1.7% of a combined global "money basket" of fiat currency and gold worth about $138 trillion. The firm also found that just 825,000 people worldwide hold at least one whole coin, while businesses are absorbing Bitcoin far faster than new supply is issued.
Bitcoin now represents close to 1% of all the money on Earth, according to River's calculation that BTC's market cap has reached about 1.7% of a $138 trillion global money basket. The firm reached the milestone marker just 16 years after Bitcoin's creation.
How River built the $138 trillion basket
River's figure combines two components: global fiat M2 money supply, pegged at $112.9 trillion, and gold's market capitalization at $25.1 trillion. Together those form what the firm considers the world's total money basket. At Bitcoin's peak market capitalization of around $2.4 trillion, BTC claimed about 1.7% of that basket. Price swings since then have pulled the figure down slightly, to roughly 1.66% at the time of River's reporting.
Supply keeps tightening
Bitcoin's daily issuance sits at approximately 450 BTC per day following the most recent halving cycle. Businesses alone are absorbing roughly 1,755 BTC daily, nearly four times the rate of new supply entering the market. River attributes some of Bitcoin's growing adoption to continuing monetary expansion by central banks, which erodes the purchasing power of fiat currency over time and pushes individuals toward alternative stores of value.
Whole-coin ownership stays rare
River's research also surfaced a data point on ownership concentration: only about 825,000 individuals globally hold at least one whole Bitcoin, roughly 0.01% of the world's population. For context, there are approximately 60 million millionaires worldwide. The pool of whole-coin holders is less than 1.5% of that group. River's research suggests a 10% allocation to Bitcoin has historically outperformed conventional strategies, including the classic 60/40 stock-and-bond portfolio.
Source: Crypto Briefing
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