Market capitalisation Comparison (July 2025)

The cryptocurrency market has grown substantially, reaching an approximate total market capitalisation of $4 trillion as of July 2025. This places crypto in context with the world’s largest asset classes, though it remains much smaller than traditional markets.

Ranking by Market Cap (2025)

By sheer size, real estate is the largest asset class by a wide margin – roughly $390–400 trillion globally, which is more than the combined value of stocks and bonds. Next are the bond and equity markets, each on the order of $100+ trillion. Gold, while a well-known store of value, is much smaller at around $12–16 trillion (depending on price) – only a few percent of the size of equities or bonds. The crypto market (~$4T), despite recent growth, remains relatively small, about 1/30th the size of stock markets and <3% of real estate’s value. In fact, at $4T it’s roughly equivalent to one very large company’s market cap (for context, in mid-2025 crypto was just behind the world’s biggest company, NVIDIA at ~$4.2T). Finally, the annual value of oil production (~$3T) is of a similar order as crypto’s market cap, but this represents a year’s output of a commodity rather than a stored wealth stock.

Market Cap Rank (largest to smallest):

1. Global Real Estate: ~$390T (by far the largest asset class).
   

2. Global Bond Market: ~$120–140T.
   

3. Global Equities: ~$115–120T. (Note: Bonds slightly edged out equities as of 2024.)
   

4. Gold: ~$16T (all above-ground gold’s value at current prices).
   

5. Oil (Annual Production): ~$3T/year (approx., at ~100 million barrels/day and ~$80/barrel).
   

6. Cryptocurrency Market: ~$4T (as of mid-2025, recently reached new highs).
   

Ranking by Daily Trading Volume

In terms of liquidity and trading activity, the ranking differs from market cap. Global bond markets have the highest trading volumes, routinely trading over $2 trillion per day in aggregate. For instance, bond trading on electronic platforms (Tradeweb, etc.) reached ~$2.5T daily in 2025, reflecting huge turnover in government and corporate debt markets. Equities are next: on average about $106 trillion in stocks traded hands over 2024, which is roughly $0.4–0.5 trillion per day globally. The gold market – despite its smaller size – is extremely liquid; in 2024 it traded about $233 billion per day, and spiked to nearly $300B in early 2025. This means gold’s turnover (as a fraction of its market cap) is very high, comparable to major financial assets.

Cryptocurrency trading volumes have also grown: during the 2025 rally, crypto’s total 24-hour volume often reached $150–200 billion on a given day. This now rivals the daily volume of gold and is roughly half of global stock market volume. It underscores that crypto markets, while smaller in capitalisation, have high velocity and liquidity relative to their size (partly due to 24/7 trading and speculative nature). By contrast, oil’s physical market sees about 100 million barrels consumed/traded per day (~$8–9 billion value at current prices), but if one includes futures and derivatives, the notional trading can be on the order of tens or hundreds of billions – still not as high as equities or bonds. Real estate is the least liquid – properties do not change hands often. Global commercial real estate investment volume was about $703B for the entire year 2024, which averages to only ~$3B per day. In other words, real estate’s daily turnover is essentially negligible compared to financial markets.

Trading Volume Rank (highest to lowest):

1. Global Bonds:Highest liquidity – roughly $2–3 trillion traded daily (e.g. government bond markets).
   

2. Global Equities: on the order of $400–500 billion traded daily.
   

3. Gold: recently ~$200–300 billion per day (very liquid for its size).
   

4. Cryptocurrency: around $100–200 billion per day in 2025 (and growing).
   

5. Oil: roughly $8B physical trade per day (≈100 Mbbl * $80) plus futures volume (~tens of billions).
   

6. Real Estate: only a few $billion per day (highly illiquid; ~$0.7T/year turnover).
   

Insight: The bond and forex markets are generally the most liquid of all global markets (for context, foreign exchange markets trade ~$7 trillion per day). Among the assets listed, bonds and equities dominate daily trading value, whereas real estate hardly trades daily. Crypto’s volume is already relatively large – reflecting high churn – even though its market cap is smaller, indicating a high turnover ratio similar to gold’s.

Crypto Growth Projections Through 2030

Looking ahead, if cryptocurrencies continue to grow, their market size and trading volumes could expand significantly by 2030. Below are projections under two illustrative compound annual growth rate (CAGR) scenarios:

• Conservative Growth – 15% CAGR: At 15% annual growth, the crypto market would roughly double in five years. By 2030, the total crypto market cap could reach on the order of $8 trillion (approximately) and daily trading volume could rise to around $350–400 billion. This scenario assumes steady, moderate adoption and is in line with some projections (for example, one study projects about $11.7T by 2030 for the crypto market, which is between our conservative and aggressive cases).
  

• Aggressive Growth – 25% CAGR: At 25% yearly growth (sustained, which is high but reflects strong bullish uptake), the crypto market cap would about triple over five years. By 2030 it might reach roughly $12–13 trillion in size, with daily trading volumes perhaps in the $600+ billion range. This would make crypto as an asset class approach the scale of major equity markets today. (Notably, $12T is in line with some optimistic forecasts around a $10–12T crypto market by 2030.)
  

These growth rates are ambitious but not implausible given the rapid expansion in past cycles. A 15–25% CAGR implies crypto integrating further into mainstream finance (institutional adoption, broader use cases, possibly multiple bull/bear cycles).

Projected Crypto Market Cap & Volume (2030):

• 15% CAGR scenario: ~$8 trillion market cap; ~$0.4T daily volume (mid-2030).
  

• 25% CAGR scenario: ~$12 trillion market cap; ~$0.6T daily volume (mid-2030).
  

(For context, the global crypto market was about $0.3T in 2019, grew to ~$2.5T in late 2021, and is $4T in 2025 – an example of the exponential growth and volatility in this sector.)

When Might Crypto Volume Overtake Equity Volume?

A key question is at what point crypto trading activity could surpass that of global equities. As of 2025, crypto’s ~$200B daily volume is roughly half of the ~$400B in stock markets. If crypto volumes grow in proportion to market cap, then under a high-growth (25% CAGR) scenario they could catch up with stock trading volumes by around the end of this decade. In fact, extrapolating 25% annual increases suggests crypto 24h volume would exceed $500B sometime around 2030–2031, assuming equity market volumes remain in the same ballpark. In the conservative (15% CAGR) scenario, crypto’s volume would take longer – likely well into the mid-2030s – to reach current equity turnover levels, and that also assumes equity volumes don’t grow significantly in the interim.

It’s worth noting that equity market volume may also rise over time (with market growth and more trading activity), so the crossover year could be pushed out if traditional markets expand. However, the trend is that crypto’s share of global trading activity is increasing. Already in certain periods, crypto trading has briefly rivaled stock trading – for example, in early 2021 and 2025 during peak rallies, crypto volumes approached those of some major stock exchanges. Continued 20%+ annual growth in crypto volume, versus single-digit growth in equities, would make crypto a significant portion of global trading by 2030.

Bottom Line: If the crypto market expands at an aggressive pace, daily crypto turnover could match or surpass global equity market volume by around 2030. Under more moderate growth, it might take a bit longer (early-to-mid 2030s). This inflection point will depend on many factors – market maturation, regulatory developments, and the degree to which crypto assets become integrated with institutional trading. Regardless of the exact year, the gap is closing: crypto is evolving from a niche asset class into one with liquidity on par with established markets, as evidenced by its ~$4T size and hundreds of billions in daily trade today.

Sources and References

• CoinMarketCap – Cryptocurrency Total Market Cap & Volume, Q2/Q3 2025.
  

• CoinTelegraph – “Crypto market cap nears $4T” (July 18, 2025).
  

• Ocorian Asset Monitor – Global Assets Value 2024 (public equity $115T; bonds $117T).
  

• World Economic Forum / BIS – Global Bond Market $133T (2022).
  

• SIFMA/World Bank – Global Equity Trading $106.5T in 2024.
  

• PCM Property Group – Global Real Estate $390T (2023).
  

• JLL – Global Real Estate Transactions $703B in 2024.
  

• World Gold Council – All gold ≈$16T; Gold daily volume $233B (2024).
  

• IEA via Reuters – Oil & Gas revenues ~$3.5T/yr (avg); Global oil demand ~100 Mbpd.
  

• Tradeweb – Global bond trading ADV $2.5T (May 2025).
  

• PatentPC/ScienceDirect – Crypto market projection $11.7T by 2030.