If this isn’t a sign of ‘Bitcoin going mainstream, what is? We’ve watched in amazement as the “mainstream” ignored the vast popularity and usefulness of cryptos. Finally, in the first quarter of 2021, they’re catching up on the bitcoin story and the potential for crypto.
Visa announced it would become the first major payments company to offer settling transactions in cryptocurrencies – specifically USD Coin (“USDC”), whose value is pegged one-to-one to the U.S. dollar. This move cuts through the “red tape” of a legacy payment system and uses the Ethereum blockchain instead. In other words, to make a transaction, you don’t need to directly deal with U.S. dollars at all.
Visa said it completed its first transaction this month with crypto exchange Crypto.com.. They sent USDC to Visa’s Ethereum address at Anchorage. Beyond Visa’s announcements, we’re also seeing credit-card companies developing ways to pay crypto rewards, like the “cash back” or points features that exist today.
Paypal announced the launch of its new “Checkout with Crypto” feature. It will allow people to pay with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin at millions of online businesses. Paypal has more than 375 million active accounts across the world. It accounts for 22% of all online transactions in the U.S.
PayPal is huge, gaining popularity because of its seamless connectivity to eBay (EBAY). And it happened during a time when most people didn’t trust sending money over the Internet nearly as much as they do today.
As of October 2020, there were only nine crypto-friendly U.S. banks. But that’s about to change. According to Bitpress, 90% of the world’s banks are discussing or testing blockchain applications. And a PwC survey found 82% of financial companies expect to develop fintech partnerships in the next three years.
The crypto industry is growing up fast. With the 2021 cryptocurrency market as hot as it has ever been and the business world is taking notice:
- Tesla accepts BTC for payment
- Morgan Stanley is making a big “bet” on bitcoin and is even thinking about offering “bitcoin funds” to clients.
- Mastercard has announced plans to support cryptocurrencies in 2021.
- Money management giant BlackRock announced it’s getting into cryptos.
- Insurance titan MassMutual bought $100 million of bitcoin.
- Billionaire trader Paul Tudor Jones disclosed he has up to 2% of his portfolio in bitcoin.
Many of the richest and most powerful people and companies are moving into bitcoin.
Billionaire investor Ray Dalio, the founder of the $150 billion hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest, says of the state of Bitcoin:
“Bitcoin has proven itself over the last 10 years. It hasn’t been hacked. It’s by and large, therefore, worked on an operational basis. It has built a significant following. It is an alternative, in a sense, storehold of wealth. It’s like a digital cash. And those are the pluses.”
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