What does this mean for crypto? A sign of something bigger to come or first dips to test the waters?
Major Signals
- Payment Giants Mastercard and Visa are set to open up spending/trading avenues on their platform for Bitcoin owners.
- Recently, BNY Mellon and Black rock have also joined the crypto bandwagon.
- Between MasterCard and Visa, there are over 6 billion cards being used all over the world.
MasterCard, the well-known international payment giant, recently revealed its intentions of partnering with some 30 million merchants to open up access to nearly 1 billion users to use digital currency to make payments for services and products using its platform. Prior to that, Visa previously reaffirmed its plans around 30th January, to continue to push for cryptocurrency payments and on-ramps, showing that the company has long-term plans for the sector.
This shows that bitcoin is moving from an outlandish, untrusted asset to a much more mainstream, widely accepted asset with the potential of being a widely sought after store of value like gold, or even better. Mastercard’s and Visa’s foray into crypto is just one example of the ever-growing barrage of mainstream technology and payment companies delving into Bitcoin as an investment, form of payment or investment vehicle, but these two companies represent billions of payments carried out every year.
Additionally, the world’s largest custodian bank, Bank of New York Mellon, revealed it will roll out a cryptocurrency custody service. And next, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, confirmed it has begun to “dabble” in Bitcoin.
What does all of these mean for the crypto community? As of the fourth quarter of 2020, there are 246 million Mastercard credit cards in the United States and 966 million worldwide, while Visa reports it has 3.5 billion cards in use throughout the world and that its network processes over 140 billion transactions per year.
It means mass adoption, going fully mainstream, wide recognition as a store of value, and of course, a new influx of buyers and traders into the cryptomarket. Bitcoin would be well on its way to being globally recognized as a standard store of value.
Exciting isn't it? Let's know your thoughts on the comments.
