Branchen-News

One of the world’s leading payment processors, PayPal launches its cryptocurrency services in the UK starting from late August 2021.

Bitcoin is gaining ground! BTC price is on the move again, hitting its highest level since mid-May. It peaked at $50,270, adding 3% on the day. It has recovered more than 72% since June. The crypto asset’s overall market valuation is currently at $942 billion. This could be a sign that the “capitulation period has ended and the market is back on solid ground,” Coin Metrics wrote in a Tuesday newsletter.

On July 20, the European Commission introduced a law proposing the prohibition of anonymous cryptocurrency wallets. The project offers to oblige companies involved in cryptocurrency transfers to track the personal data of senders and recipients of digital assets, including a full name, residence address, date of birth, and account number. Personal identification is said to be imperative for the security of such transfers and the facilitation of the enforcement agencies’ combat against money laundering and terrorist financing.

One of the largest global payment systems operators, Mastercard is preparing a special program expanding cryptocurrency payment options and simplifying the process of converting crypto into fiat (traditional) currencies. This will be possible thanks to MasterCard’s partnership with such fintech and blockchain companies as Evolve, Paxos, and Circle. The partnership is aimed at ensuring that cryptocurrency cardholders can pay for goods and services wherever MasterCard is accepted.

The partnership of cryptocurrency companies and the global payment system VISA has just reached a new level: the first-of-its-kind VISA credit card with 1.5-2% BTC cashback is now available for US customers. The card was developed and issued by the American crypto-lending platform BlockFi.

Today, we are witnessing the expansion of cryptocurrency’s global privileges. For example, a member of the Argentine House of Representatives Jose Luis Ramon announced the introduction of a bill allowing employees to be paid in cryptocurrency (either partially or in whole). According to the deputy, today cryptocurrency provides employees with a wide range of advantages and tackles several issues at once, including the “strengthening of the workers’ autonomy” along with “sustaining the purchasing power” of their assets. Thus, all employees will be free to choose between the standard salary format and the cryptocurrency one. In such an event, it is the employer who will bear all the costs related to the transfer of cryptocurrency to an employee. The impetus for the bill’s elaboration was largely due to the country's participation in the Global Forum on the Knowledge Economy several years ago.

In May 2021, a massive cryptocurrency crackdown happened in China: the government banned cryptocurrency mining in four major provinces. The clampdown led to the forced relocation of a solid number of both Chinese and international digital assets companies and brought about a drop in the bitcoin hash rate by more than 50%. The Chinese government's ultimate ban on financial institutions, including banks and online payment channels for applying cryptocurrency, then echoed around the world and hit the news reports of multiple crypto websites. According to Kevin Zhang, Vice President of Business Development at Chinese crypto company Foundry, by the end of June 2021, about 90% of Chinese miners were forced to completely stop mining digital assets.

On-chain data shows long-term BTC holders are back in accumulation mode after the recent shake-out.

Coinbase has officially announced that you can now use your Coinbase Card with Apple Pay and Google Pay to buy goods and services with cryptocurrency.

Lately, the number of headlines and tweets about Bitcoin’s energy use and potential environmental impact has grown. Does Bitcoin use too much energy? Is it possible to mine BTC using only 100% renewable energy sources? Let’s find the answers to these questions.

Last weekend the Bitcoin network hashrate has dropped more than 49%, after hitting an all-time high at 218 exahash per second, reaching 169 EH/s. Immediately after that, regional reporter Colin Wu tweeted about power outages in China. “The hashrate of Bitcoin mining pools plummeted in 24 hours. Antpool fell by 24.5%, Btc.com fell by 18.9%, Poolin fell by 33%, Binance pool fell by 20%,” he said. “The reason is that Northwest China is undergoing a complete blackout for safety inspections.”

On Monday Visa announced that it now makes payments in the USDC (USD Coin) on the Ethereum blockchain. As appeared, Visa is now considered as the first major payments network with Stablecoin as a settlement currency, though previously settling payments in fiat currencies only.

During an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Anthony Scaramucci compared Bitcoin’s future to Amazon shares. “Bitcoin is 12 years old. Amazon shares had a 64x return on your money from 2009 to 2021 after the 12th year,” Scaramucci said, noting that nobody expected Amazon shares to soar up in the next dozen years. They have actually surged more than 3,600% from the company’s IPO in May 1997 to May 2009.

March has become a profitable month for miners. According to data collected by The Block Research, they have earned more than $1.5 billion in March. This is an impressive number and the highest income earned by the mining sector in just one month. The record high in March surpasses February when miners earned $1.36 billion in this sector. New performance numbers show that miners have over $1 billion for each of the three months in a row!

It seems that the new preferred store of value appears in the financial arena. As the price of Bitcoin is getting closer to $59,000, its value in relation to gold is approaching new all-time highs! Measured against gold, the price of Bitcoin recently reached 34.94 ounces. It has more than doubled in the past three months and nearly sevenfold since October 2020.

The traditional financial landscape has drastically changed so far and a growing number of institutional investors are flocking to Bitcoin. Some of them like the stock market bulls are cooperatively purchasing the largest amount of BTC assets.

Despite the recent fluctuations in the Bitcoin rate, its position in the market remains strong and allows us to make positive forecasts. In particular, it can be expected that in the nearest future people will hold Bitcoin instead of investing in stocks, bonds, or real estate.

Bitcoin has come a long way since its inception in 2009 and now we can see the latest sign of its adoption on Wall Street. Institutional banking powerhouse Morgan Stanley will give accredited wealth management clients access to BTC investing. It will be the first big U.S. bank to make such an offer.