#cryptocurrency

This summer has become a major point for the crypto services development of PayPal — one of the world’s leading payment processors.

Bitcoin has already been integrated with many companies and used as a payment method. But things do not stop here, and cryptocurrency has peaked at new heights. Now many people receive their salaries in BTC!

Crypto industry’s life doesn’t stand still. Have you ever thought about what will happen to your cryptocurrency in 20 years? 50? People are used to passing their fortune down the line or putting it in their relatives and close ones’ names.

Great news for users of PayPal! The company is about to release its own stablecoin.

Non-fungible tokens have proved their status as major trendsetters in the cryptocurrency market in 2021. At the end of last year, the total amount of all transactions made in the sector of non-fungible tokens (NFT) exceeded $250 million, demonstrating an impressive growth rate of 299% in annual terms.

NFT marketplaces make billions in monthly trading volumes, the NFT art piece by American artist Beeple sells for more than $69 million, NFTs constitute whole virtual worlds like Decentraland – why is all that craze and is it worth joining in?

Bitcoin has been officially approved by the US Stock Exchange – on October 19, the world’s first trading of the Bitcoin Strategy ETF was successfully launched in New York. In two days of trading, Bitcoin assets managed by the exchange-traded fund exceeded $1 billion. The Bitcoin Strategy ETF thus became the first US exchange-traded fund to be officially approved for Bitcoin contracts.

Thanks to the Litecoin Visa virtual card, synchronized with Apple, Google, and Samsung Pay, users can now pay for millions of goods and services with Litecoin and other popular cryptos in a matter of minutes.

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.

Very soon everyone will be able to convert cryptocurrency without losses and unnecessary hassle. 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 a range of fintech and blockchain companies. The partnership is aimed at ensuring that users of credit cards supporting the crypto program can pay for goods and services wherever MasterCard is accepted. What are the further benefits of this program?

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 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.

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.