, Columnist
Bitcoin's Bewildering Race to $100 Billion
It may not be weighty yet, but it's speedy.
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There is no official measurement of a market bubble, but one could be the speed and force of the rise, a technique borrowed from the physical realm. Dot-com stocks rose 680 percent from the beginning of 1996 to the end of March 2000. Bitcoin has risen nearly 825 percent in the past year alone, to about $5,700.
In that run, it has added roughly $90 billion in value, crossing above $100 billion for the first time on Friday before dropping back a bit. It's only a matter of time before it becomes a permanent member of the $100 billion club. Bitcoin is now worth more than a number of financial firms that would be its rivals, like American Express Co. ($81 billion) and PayPal Holdings Inc. ($84 billion).