The Bitcoin gold rush accelerated Thursday as the world's best-known digital currency barreled through $14,000, $15,000 and $16,000 in an extraordinary price run-up that now values the cryptocurrency at $271 billion, eclipsing Home Depot's market worth.
Bitcoin's surge — which many Wall Street pros claim is a speculative frenzy and financial bubble — has boosted the digital currency's market value so much that it's now worth more than 488 of the 500 U.S. companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index. So only 12 companies in the large-cap stock index have market values greater than Bitcoin, S&P Dow Jones Indices data through Dec. 6 show.
