Apple Hits $5 Trillion Valuation, Dwarfing Crypto Market

Apple's market capitalization briefly surpassed $5 trillion during intraday trading on July 28, making it the second company to achieve this milestone after Nvidia. The tech giant's shares crossed above $340 per share, but it couldn't hold the line through closing bell, finishing the session with a market cap estimated between $4.96 trillion and $4.98 trillion.

Apple's path to $5 trillion wasn't sudden; it previously cleared the $3 trillion, $4 trillion, and $4.5 trillion milestones in succession. The company is now worth more than every Bitcoin, Ethereum token, memecoin, and DeFi protocol combined, highlighting a significant disparity between Apple's valuation and the entire crypto market.

Prediction markets placed Nvidia's chances of being the largest company by market cap at the end of August at roughly 48.5%, suggesting this isn't a settled competition. The $5 trillion level may become the new battleground where the world's two most valuable companies duke it out, while the crypto market works on closing the gap from below.