Remember back in 2010, when Bitcoin fell 31% in two weeks? Or 2013, when it fell 68% in just one week?

Don’t feel bad if you don’t, because in those days Bitcoin was a bit player. Its gyrations mattered only to early adopters. 

Bitcoin is still volatile, but now it’s also big. Its market capitalization was north of $1 trillion for most of March and April. Two things have changed since the early days: The price per unit has risen, and the number of units in circulation has gone up. The product of those two numbers is the cryptocurrency’s market capitalization.

This chart shows the transformation. Bitcoin’s market cap in 2010 and 2013 was so small compared to now that those early plunges are invisible:

The Bitcoin Roller Coaster Is Tough to Ride

The cryptocurrency's ups and downs matter more than in the past

Source: Data compiled by Bloomberg

Now when Bitcoin tanks, people notice. On May 19, “selling gave way to more selling as investors lured into crypto in search of a quick buck bolted for the exits,” Bloomberg reported. “The history of these assets has been littered with aggressive rallies and sickening selloffs,” said Stephane Ouellette, co-founder and chief executive officer of FRNT Financial.

After a big rally late in the trading session, Bitcoin finished May 19 in New York down 35% from where it finished the day on May 8. That’s not huge in percentage terms compared to those 2011 and 2013 plunges, not to mention several more recent ones, including a 63% drop from December 2017 to February 2018.

In dollars, though, this one is much bigger. In terms of market cap, the drop is almost twice the size of the one in 2017-18, more than 220 times as big as the one in 2013, and almost a million times larger than the 2010 drop.

In short, Bitcoin matters a lot more than it used to.