In the wake of its eighth-year anniversary, Bitcoin’s global market capitalization has crossed the $18 billion range having grown at a 24-hour rate of over 6% which saw it add over $1 billion in a day, according CoinMarketCap.

Bitcoin marked its anniversary on Tuesday January 3 when the day ended with a cap of $16.8 billion. By Wednesday, the market cap has risen to $17.6 billion even with the day still left with several hours to end.

Later the same day, by 6:30 GMT+1 (or 01:30 CST January 5), it jumped to $18.2 billion just as the global average price of Bitcoin reached $1,132 (as at the time of this writing).

According to blockchain.info, the market capitalization shows the total USD value of Bitcoin supply in circulation as calculated by the daily average market price across major exchanges.

Put into perspective, Bitcoin has gained close to 18% in the first four days of 2017 as the digital currency maintains its upward swing which picked up since December 20 after months of a moreorless parallel movement in its day-to-day transactions.

Daily transactions in Bitcoin experienced a significant descent in August when it dropped from over $300 million to two-digits as low as $53 million – that was after the Bitfinex hack in which $65 million was stolen from the Bitcoin exchange. The theft set the market back as several investors were discouraged by the hack.

However, with threats to government-backed fiats such as in China, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and India now on the increase, the trend which has been linked to the widening market base shows that the Bitcoin market is on a recovery path.

Following how the market cap moves is important because it gives insight into the currency’s current state and its potential to attract new or sustain existing investments.