The Bitcoin price has crossed the $1000 mark on several exchanges including Bitfinex, Poloniex and Bitstamp on Jan. 1, 2017.

According to CoinMarketCap, the digital currency’s market cap has also crossed $16 bln as at the time of this publication. That is: Bitcoin’s market cap grew by more than $5 bln between the months of November and December 2016, a feat it was only able to achieve in the first five years of its existence.  

With each passing year indicating that more people are getting aware of Bitcoin and what its benefits are and how to use it, the currency seems to be performing beyond expectations and proving several skeptics wrong.

Several enthusiasts are now looking forward to seeing Bitcoin rise to new all-time highs soon to break the 2013 record of $1,132 which is close to the gold price per ounce currently at $1,153.60 today, thus growth in the smaller denominations of Bitcoin is another area of interest.

mBTC is now a better unit of account

With 1 mBTC gaining parity to be on par with $1 owing to the $1000 break, attention is now being shifted to the importance of using mBTC or Mili-Bitcoin, which is 1/1000 of a Bitcoin or 0.001 BTC, as a unit of account.

Going by BitEdge, mBTC are so popular because they are easily equatable mentally to Bitcoin amounts and government currency amounts. This will impact Bitcoin use positively as merchants and users would be able to relate to the unit better.

This brings up a comment by the Bitcoin Foundation executive director, Llew Claasen, in an interview with me last year. He stated in response to the question about whether people in Africa are missing out on Bitcoin because of its limited availability that Bitcoin is in the very early days of adoption.

He stated:

“It is true that there will only ever be 21 mln Bitcoin mined and that 15.7 mln of them have already been mined, but this does not mean that in the future there will be those with and those without Bitcoin. There are 100 mln Satoshis in a Bitcoin and only 100 cents in a dollar or euro. There is a lot of room for growth in the smaller denominations and value exchange will flatten out the distribution.”

The foreseen “growth in the smaller denominations” and value exchange flattening out the distribution is what has seemingly started now.