Bitcoin owners have set a benchmark for the "21 million club."

To gain entry, you must own a full bitcoin, currently valued at nearly $13,000.

The 21 million figure refers to how many bitcoin will ever be in circulation.

Many people who missed buying out when bitcoin was cheaper now fear they'll never become a member.



Bitcoin is having quite the year. Since it first hit $1,000 on January 2, the value of one bitcoin has risen to nearly $13,000 as of December 6.

The rising prices (and surrounding cryptocurrency rush) have enticed throngs of people to nab their first coins, coin, or fractions of a coin.

It's also spurred users to set a clear benchmark for bitcoin ownership, based on the fact that there are only 21 million bitcoin that will ever be in circulation: the exclusive "21 million club."

Members of the 21 million club own at least one full bitcoin. They are part of a rare group that makes up less than 0.3% of the global population (since some people own hundreds, if not thousands of bitcoin.)

On the bitcoin subreddit, users share stories of making into the 21 million club, their plans to eventually do so, and regrets about not having invested earlier, when their budgets might have still allowed them to join.

Some Redditors lament not having bought in earlier. Now they're forced to buy fractions of a coin at a price that, just a year ago, would have been enough to net a full coin or more.

There's no formal "club," per se. Membership is purely symbolic. But for those who have staked out their tiny corner of the massive (and finite) bitcoin fortune, the distinction is still a point of pride.

That is, unless bitcoin goes the way of some skeptical analysts who call the cryptocurrency rush a bubble. If it eventually pops, membership may not mean much of anything.