Bitcoin’s price hit $49,803 on Saturday afternoon, the highest it has reached since March 5, 2021. After trading between $30,000 and $40,000 for several weeks, bitcoin is nearing the key $50,000 level as it continues to climb back toward high points seen earlier this year. As I write this post, the entire crypto market cap is over $2 trillion. In 2021 Bitcoin’s price is up 57%, Ether’s has risen 400%, and Dogecoin has soared 13,000%.
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Digital assets are an idea whose time has come and there is no stopping it, regardless of countries like China imposing bans, VIPs like Elon Musk criticizing it for not being “green” enough, or governments putting in place strict regulations.
The integration of bitcoin into financial institutions has already started in countries such as El Salvador, and this is just the beginning. Crypto has hit an inflection point, with 14% of the US population investing in cryptocurrency and global crypto adoption rising some 881% in the past 12 months.
Factors pushing crypto’s comeback
Retail investors have more access than ever through platforms like Revolut, Robinhood, Coinbase, Square, Venmo, and exchanges that offer crypto trading.
Institutional investors like banks, hedge funds, and corporations have been investing in bitcoin, some even see it as a hedge against inflation. In March, Tesla said its bitcoin investment was worth $2.5B. MassMutual Life Insurance invested $100M in bitcoin. Paul Tudor Jones has turned into a bitcoin believer, instilling confidence in retail and institutional investors alike. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs provide wealth management clients exposure to bitcoin. The European Investment Bank just issued $120M worth of bonds on the Ethereum network.
VIPs like Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey, Lil Yachty, and Jake Paul have promoted Bitcoin and altcoins. Crypto converts are dominating social media, from Twitter to Clubhouse and Reddit.
Expanded uses of crypto and blockchain technology are fueling excitement. Paypal is letting users shop at 26 million merchants with crypto. There’s also growing excitement about crypto applications, blockchain, decentralized finance, and NFTs that have gone ballistic.
Crypto’s most significant hurdle is regulation
People’s interest in crypto has skyrocketed this year and so has the interest by regulators. Lawmakers in the US and across the world are trying to figure out how to establish laws and guidelines to make cryptocurrency safer for investors and less appealing to cybercriminals. Yet, in a single country like the US, federal agencies and states, don’t have a clear or consistent approach. The SEC, FTC, IRS, and FinCEN all have different opinions about what cryptocurrency is and how to go about regulating it. Clear and fair regulation is important because it would remove a significant roadblock for cryptocurrency and drive even more people to the market.
Crypto payments
Cryptos are moving along the e-commerce path, with Paypal, Starbucks, and America’s largest movie theatre chain AMC all accepting digital coins. Even super-expensive football player Lionel Messi will be partly paid in digital currency as part of his mega-deal with Paris Saint-Germain. Now if the rumors about Amazon prepping to accept bitcoin hold true, I would go as far as to say bitcoin is mainstream.
In the past, the idea of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin was alien. However, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin, and its acceptance and adoption kept spreading. As of August 2021, there are more than 4 500 cryptocurrencies, up from just a handful in 2013. So much energy and development work is being poured into crypto and blockchain. The growing market and uses of bitcoin and crypto just show that their mainstream acceptance is almost inevitable.
The genie is out of the bottle.
Crypto is all about freedom. People around the world want to take charge of their financial destinies. Decentralized cryptocurrencies are the vehicle to bring billions of people around the world closer to their dreams of financial freedom.
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Source: https://dailyfintech.com/2021/08/23/knock-knock-whos-there-bitcoin/
