COVID-19 drives digital asset adoption?
As 2020 is rapidly coming to an end (finally!), biggest players and brightest minds in the digital assets industry are assessing the key numbers of the year, and coming forward with new innovations. That’s why this issue of Twice the Value turned out to be covering institutional news in the crypto space.
Let’s look at the numbers: Cointelegraph Consulting reports that 36% of professional investors in Europe already have digital assets in their portfolio, while Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investor Study says that 55% of investors in America are interested.
Responding to the demand worldwide, institutional players seem to be racing each other in digital asset adoption. Last week PayPal made the news with supporting cryptocurrencies, and this week JPMorgan had two big announcements to share.
JPM Coin and blockchain for big business
JPMorgan is back in the digital asset game — this time introducing a blockchain network for big business. The newly rebranded Liink banking platform has already invited over 400 banks and other financial institutions to build on top of it.
Also, JPM Coin, which announcement made a sensation in early 2019, is finally live — this week it was used by JPMorgan’s large technology client for international transactions for the first time.
But will it prove useful – and is it as innovative as it seems?
COVID-19 drives Bitcoin adoption?
While JPM Coin raises concerns as a reliable store of value, Bitcoin continues to gain momentum as a mainstream investment opportunity.
According to the recent Bitcoin Investor Study by Grayscale, in 2020 more than half of U.S. investors have been interested in investing in Bitcoin. Among those who already invested, 38% did so within the last four months, indicating that COVID-19 impacted their decision.
On Monday, founder of Onchain Capital reported moving $1.1 billion worth of BTC – one of the largest Bitcoin transactions in history. It cost him a little over $3.
As Messari’s Mira Christanto pointed out, it would cost around $69 million to move the same amount of assets in gold.
These numbers speak for themselves, pointing out another important use case for Bitcoin – maybe it is a perfect way to bank the unbanked? Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga believes that it’s still too volatile and opaque to drive financial inclusion.
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