Bitcoin hits $1 trillion in market value as price nears $55,000

The price of Bitcoin is continuing its recent surge, hitting nearly $55,000 per virtual coin on Friday morning and pushing the total value of the cryptocurrency to over $1 trillion. 

The recent rally has seen Bitcoin jump by more than 46% over the past month and more than 365% over the last six months as it continued to push to new highs. This has been fueled by a flood of good news over the past few weeks, including Tesla announcing that it has invested $1.5 billion in the currency and that it would let customers buy its vehicles using Bitcoin as payment. 

Financial institutions have increasingly warmed to the idea of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, with Mastercard announcing on Feb. 10 that it will integrate cryptocurrencies into its payment network later this year. Bank of New York Mellon, the oldest bank in the US, also announced this month that it will begin financing Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. 

As noted by CNBC, with a market cap of over $1 trillion, Bitcoin's market value is higher than that of most stocks, including Tesla, which at time of publication was valued at around $755 billion. Despite its meteoric rise, however, the cryptocurrency still has a ways to go to catch Apple. The iPhone-maker is the world's most valuable company with a market cap of $2.18 trillion.