Bitcoin just celebrated its 16th birthday. It hit a record high of $108,000 per coin last month, and it’s still riding a wave of excitement, so let’s take a look at how Bitcoin has performed compared to some of Silicon Valley’s biggest players on this milestone anniversary, as some experts say the comparison is telling.
Strong start
Bitcoin kicked off the New Year with a bang. After starting its holiday rally around $91,500 on December 30, it jumped to nearly $98,690 just a few days later, but trading volume dipped from $56 billion to about $35 billion, while the Nasdaq Composite index took a hit, falling 1.38%.
The first block was mined on January 3, 2009, so happy birthday! Now that Bitcoin is old enough to drive (if it were a person), let’s see how it compares to Google, Amazon, and Facebook when they turned sweet sixteen.
Magic internet money
Back in the day, Bitcoin was trading for just $0.00099 on forums like BitcoinTalk and through PayPal.
Fast forward to today, and that same dollar worth of Bitcoin would be worth about $9.8 billion, because that’s an insane increase of 989 trillion percent over 16 years.
No freakin’ wonder traditional finance is still trying to wrap its head around these numbers. And what’s on the other table?
Google went public in 2004 at $85 per share. Fast forward to January 3, and shares are trading at about $193.
After a stock split in 2022, those shares are effectively worth around $3,860, giving investors a return of about 4,541% over roughly 11 years.
Giants
Amazon, which debuted at just $18 per share in 1997, is now trading around $224, thanks to four stock splits along the way.
Adjusted for splits, that means early investors would have shares worth about $53,760, translating to an ROI of 298,666%.
Even with all that growth, Bitcoin still outshines Amazon’s returns by a long shot. A really long one.
Then we have Facebook, which launched at $38 per share in 2012 and is now trading at around $604. This gives Facebook an ROI of about 1,589% after 12 years, but again, it doesn’t hold a candle to Bitcoin’s growth.
Because there is no second best? Time will tell.
