What Happened: This compares with Apple Inc.’s (NASDAQ: APPL) valuation of $2.23 trillion, as per Friday’s closing price of $133 per share.

The iPhone maker is the world’s most valuable publicly traded company at the moment.

The cryptocurrency market briefly touched the $2 trillion mark earlier this month, according to some market data compilers, and has found its way back there again, with altcoins leading the charge.

Bitcoin (BTC) is trading mostly unchanged over 24 hours at $60,175.48 at press time, giving it a market capitalization of $1.12 trillion, as per CoinMarketCap (CMC) data.

The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization stands ahead of the valuation of companies like Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) and Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), which are valued at $889.8 billion and $649.9 billion, respectively.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) (NASDAQ: GOOG) has a market valuation higher than that of Bitcoin at $1.54 trillion.

Why It Matters: The move assumes significance as much of the later rise in cryptocurrency market capitalization has come from the so-called altcoins — meaning, cryptocurrencies beside Bitcoin.chart, line chart© Provided by Benzinga

Total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin is sharply rising this year. Courtesy: CoinMarketCap

Bitcoin market dominance has reduced to 54.1% as of press time, compared to 69.7% in January and over 91.5% about five years ago.

chart, line chart, histogramThe shrinking Bitcoin market dominance. Courtesy: CoinMarketCap

Ethereum (ETH) dominance has also decreased from about 12.8% in January to 12.04% at press time. The world’s second-largest cryptocurrency is trading 0.5% higher at $2,150.3.

Benzinga’s Take: Multiple cryptocurrency analysts have described the onset of an “alt season,” where Bitcoin often gets outperformed by minor coins. Yet, at the same time, there’s reason to be cautious as such rallies have proved to be short-lived in the past, and minor cryptocurrencies are subject to extreme volatility.