Whenever I think about how much money exists in the world, I am amazed by the complexity of this question. It’s not as simple as it seems because everything depends on how you define "money."

If we consider only the physical money in circulation — those notes and coins you can hold in your hand — we’re talking about around 40 trillion dollars. Seems quite a lot, right? But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

When you add bank deposits and checking accounts, the number jumps to approximately 80 trillion. Most of the money we use daily isn’t physical — it’s stored on some bank server somewhere in the world.

Now, if you want to know how much money exists in the world considering savings and other more liquid financial assets, then things get even bigger. We’re talking about 100 to 130 trillion dollars. It’s almost impossible to visualize a number of that size.

But wait, there’s more. If you really want to understand the total amount of wealth in global financial assets — stocks, bonds, derivatives, all of it together — we’re looking at something between 400 and 500 trillion. And if you include all those complex financial instruments and derivatives, the nominal number could surpass the quadrillions. It’s absurd.

Of course, these numbers constantly fluctuate with market swings, central bank money printing, and all the complexity of the global financial system. But it’s interesting to think about: even if cryptocurrencies explode in value, they will hardly come close to representing a significant fraction of this total amount of money in the world. It’s a very different perspective when you put everything into context.