Trading app Robinhood said 9.5 million customers traded cryptocurrency during the first quarter of 2021, soaring from 1.7 million crypto traders on the platform in the last quarter of 2020.
Robinhood shared the figure in a blog post on Thursday in which it highlighted its Robinhood Crypto platform that it launched in 2018. “This year in particular has been a big one,” it said about activity in 2021.
There’s been a pickup this year in the number of financial institutions and other companies saying they will allow their customers to use or to gain access to cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that backs them. Investment bank Goldman Sachs is looking into ways to support their clients’ desire to own cryptocurrencies and other digital assets, CEO David Solomon said Tuesday in a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview. Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk last month said the electric vehicle maker will accept bitcoin as payment.
Robinhood said its customers have access to seven tradable coins including bitcoin, dogecoin and ethereum.
“The prospect of an open and decentralized global financial system, one where everyone can have access to financial services, strongly aligned with Robinhood’s mission–so democratizing cryptocurrency trading felt like a natural next step,” said Robinhood.
SEC commissioner Hester Peirce said at a virtual event on Wednesday that the possibility of a bitcoin ban has passed and governmental attempts to do so would be pointless.
“I don’t see how you could ban it,” she said at an “Investing in Crypto” event hosted by MarketWatch. “A government could say it’s not allowed here, but people would still be able to do it,” she added, saying it would be hard to stop anyone from trading in digital assets. “So I think it would be a foolish thing for the government to try to do that.”
Peirce, who hopes 2021 will mark a turning point for crypto regulation, said she wasn’t sure whether a bitcoin exchange-traded fund would be approved just yet since the SEC is in a period of transition. She won the nickname “crypto mom” in 2018 after disagreeing with the SEC’s decision to reject a bitcoin ETF application by the Winklevoss twins.
Regulatory veteran Gary Gensler’s nomination for SEC chairman was approved by the Senate Banking Committee last month. His confirmation will make a big difference to whether a crypto ETF gets approved, Peirce said.
Peirce thinks the US is behind the curve in regulating digital assets in comparison to other countries. But she’s optimistic about Gensler’s knowledge of crypto, and expects to have productive conversations about the space with other regulators soon enough.
“Our approach has been much more of a ‘say no and tell people to wait’ approach, so we need to turn that around, be willing to work to build a framework that is appropriate for this industry,” she said.
Bitcoin’s path to $100,000 per coin is less important than its potential impact on the corporate world over the next decade, according to Wedbush.
In a note to clients on Thursday, Wedbush’s Dan Ives said that the story around bitcoin is much larger than its “potential path/timeline to $100,000.”
The analyst argued the important theme when it comes to cryptocurrencies is “the potential ramifications that crypto, blockchain, and Bitcoin could have across the technology and corporate world for the next decade.”
Ives said moves into blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies could surge over the coming years after companies like Tesla, IBM, Visa, Square, Mastercard, and more entered the fray recently.
There’s a “growing shift for companies to accept this digital currency as a form of payment,” according to the analyst.
Ives added that he still believes “less than 5% of public companies” will invest in bitcoin over the next 12-18 months but said that number could move “markedly higher” as more regulation and acceptance of the currency takes hold.
“Bitcoin mania is not a fad in our opinion, but rather the start of a new age on the digital currency front,” Ives wrote.
Although Ives was one of the first to the party, his comments about cryptocurrencies and their regulation are becoming more in sync with other Street commentators and even CEOs as cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies continue to develop.
David Solomon, the CEO of Goldman Sachs, said his bank is looking into ways to support clients’ desire to own cryptocurrencies and other digital assets in a CNBC “Squawk Box” interview on Tuesday.
The CEO added that he believes there will be a “big evolution” in the way the US government regulates digital assets in the coming years.
Ives and his team also highlighted the potential of using blockchain technology for decentralized storage in their note to clients on Thursday.
The analyst said blockchain technology can help increase the overall speed and lower the price of digital storage moving forward. He noted, “there are a number of business models attacking this new market opportunity with privately-held Filecoin one of the more impressive strategies we have seen in the market.”
As far as Wedbush is concerned, Bitcoin isn’t going away anytime soon, rather it’s set to become “mainstream” and the effects on Wall Street and the corporate world will be huge.
Coinbase’s 840% revenue jump in the first quarter may be the perfect example of what Ives is talking about.
Coinbase posted $1.8 billion in revenue in its first-quarter report. That means the crypto exchange pulled in over $120 million more than Intercontinental Exchange, the company that owns the New York Stock Exchange, did in its most recent earnings report.
Ethereum’s cryptocurrency ether is at a fork in the road and faces a big test in climbing above $2,700, according to analysts at crypto exchange Kraken.
Kraken analysts, led by Pete Humiston, said in a review of the market on Wednesday that ether had jumped 35% and outperformed bitcoin’s 30% gain in March.
Yet they said: “When looking at historical price action, ETH is at a bit of a fork in the road.” The world’s second-biggest cryptocurrency stood at around $1,990 on Thursday morning.
Kraken said on Wednesday that chart analysis suggested ether’s next big level of resistance is around $2,700. If it passes this level, it could break into a higher band where the next resistance level is $5,000, the report suggested.
Yet the analysts added that there is a danger ether falls below the key support level of around $1,460, in which case it could drop into a lower trading band where the lower support level is $990.
However, cryptocurrencies’ wild volatility means movements are hard to predict and makes technical analysis difficult.
Kraken’s report also said that the second quarter has historically been a good one for ether, which is yet to see a negative return in the period.
Ether has shot up more than 1,000% over the last year as interest in cryptocurrencies has boomed. It touched an all-time high of around $2,150 earlier in April and has traded around $2,000 over the last week.
Developers on the Ethereum network are set to make major changes to the system in July. The alterations will change how transactions work and start to destroy ether coins, which some analysts have said could lead to the price soaring.
Yet cryptocurrencies continue to divide the financial world. Economist Nouriel Roubini on Tuesday reiterated his charge that bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are too volatile and difficult to use to be currencies, on Bloomberg TV.
He questioned that there was any value in bitcoin and called it a “self-fulfilling bubble.”
Peter Thiel, one of Silicon Valley’s most prominent venture capitalists, suggested bitcoin could pose a threat to the US during a virtual seminar held by the Richard Nixon Foundation this week.
“Even though I’m a pro-crypto, pro-bitcoin maximalist person, I do wonder whether at this point bitcoin should also be thought of in part as a Chinese financial weapon against the US,” the PayPal cofounder said. “It threatens fiat money, but it especially threatens the US dollar and China wants to do things to weaken it.”
Thiel, a Facebook board member and cofounder of Palantir Technologies, was expanding on his discussion about China not liking that the US dollar is the world’s preferred reserve currency. He said if China has a long position on bitcoin, then the US should be seeking answers on its stance from a geopolitical perspective.
The Asian economy recently created its own digital currency – a cyber yuan that is controlled by its central bank. Thiel referred to it as a “totalitarian measuring device,” rather than a real cryptocurrency.
The tech billionaire, who publicly supported former President Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, was joined by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien at the seminar. Their discussion, hosted by the Nixon Foundation’s chief executive, largely focused on big tech issues and US-China relations.
Thiel, known for his controversial views, also criticized Google and Apple for working too closely with China. He called out Google for its work on artificial intelligence, saying that the tech giant was effectively working with the Chinese military, and not the American military, according to a transcript of the event seen by CNBC.
He separately called for tighter scrutiny on Apple “because the whole iPhone supply chain gets made from China.”
Square, Fidelity, Coinbase, and Paradigm announced on Tuesday the formation of a group meant to boost the potential of cryptocurrencies by educating policymakers, regulators, institutions, and individual investors on the benefits of digital assets, which have seen exponential growth in recent years.
The Crypto Council for Innovation is made up of the leading names in the cryptocurrency space, as first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The CCI was convened by San Francisco-based investment firm Paradigm, which focuses on cryptocurrencies.
“This work will require sharing insights and analysis about crypto while correcting the misperceptions that inevitably accompany a transformative new technology,” Gus Coldebella, chief policy officer at Paradigm and one of the organizers of CCI, said in a statement. “We know that crypto holds immense promise for spurring economic growth and creating jobs, improving financial inclusion and access, and enhancing privacy and security – and that promise transcends borders.”
The alliance said it will focus on policy priorities, convening the industry’s top leaders to devise solutions together.
CCI also said it will develop resources that will enable industry participants to gain a better understanding of how to store value, create open applications, and transact at high speeds and low costs.
The alliance, on its website, also said it will aim to debunk many “wrong impressions” the public may have towards cryptocurrencies through government relations, public education, and research publication.
The launch of the alliance comes as cryptocurrencies have rallied to all-time highs.
The market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market hit an all-time high of $2 trillion on April 5, doubling in value in just three months. The market hit the $1 trillion mark just three months before in January. Bitcoin alone touched the $1 trillion market capitalization threshold for the first time in February.
Still, the cryptocurrency space is not without critics, who often point to volatility and secrecy. These include US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who once said bitcoin enables criminal activities, as well as European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.
Founded in 2018, Paradigm invests in crypto assets and businesses from the earliest stages of formation through maturity.
Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2012, serves 43 million customers in 100 countries. It plans to go public this month.
Fidelity Digital Assets is a business of Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest financial services providers with more than $10.2 trillion in client assets. Fidelity Digital Assets focuses in blockchain solutions.
Square, whose CEO is bitcoin advocate and Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, is an online payments platform. The company’s Cash App allows users to buy and sell digital currencies.
Jason Brett confirmed the announcement in an article for Forbes.
The Kings did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for the comment.
Since 2014, the team has accepted bitcoin for merchandise and tickets – at the time, it said it was the first professional sports team to make the move.
Other companies have started one-off bitcoin marketing campaigns. Fast-food chain Chipotle gave out $100,000 in bitcoin as a part of a “Burritos or Bitcoin” game on Thursday, which it said made it the first US restaurant to give away bitcoin.
Bitcoin has soared in 2021, reaching an all-time high of more than $60,000 in March.
But the currency is very volatile, and crypto exchange founder Bobby Lee told Insider’s Harry Robertson that investors should be more aware of the asset’s history of bubbles and dramatic price crashes.
The CEO on Twitter revealed that his business intelligence firm purchased an additional 253 bitcoin at an average price of around $59,339 according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing dated Monday.
“As of 4/5/2021, we #hodl ~91,579 bitcoins acquired for ~$2.226 billion at an average price of ~$24,311 per bitcoin,” Saylor said in the tweet.
MicroStrategy was the first corporation to directly purchase bitcoin, and made its last purchase on March 12.
Saylor has long been an advocate of digital currencies, especially bitcoin, and has been vocal about his stance. The bitcoin evangelist in February this year said 2021 is the “year of institutional investment” in cryptocurrency.
MicroStrategy first made a $250 million bitcoin purchase in August of 2020 and announced that it was using existing cash on its balance sheet to acquire more of the digital currency.
Bitcoin this year been embraced by major institutions including Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Tesla, PayPal, and Visa.
The world’s most popular cryptocurrency is trading lower on Monday by 0.258%, to $58,049 after flirting with the $60,000 last week. The digital asset has a market capitalization of around $1.1 trillion.
Then, last month, the cryptocurrency hit an all-time high, with prices surging to $60,000. One quirk of the increase meant that two pizzas bought by crypto legend Laszlo Hanyecz would have effectively been worth $613 million.
Bitcoin’s volatility is well-publicized and has led many investors, including Warren Buffet, to criticize it and other cryptocurrencies as “risky” and “worthless.” Such warnings have not dissuaded more companies from accepting the currency as an official payment option, however.
In February, Elon Musk announced that Tesla would accept bitcoin as a form of payment for all models of its cars in the US. In addition, Twitter’s CEO and founder, Jack Dorsey, teamed up with Jay-Z for a bitcoin endowment. The pair will invest 500 bitcoins to develop the currency in India and Africa.
Although Tesla stole the headlines, there are also hundreds of other notable companies that accept the cryptocurrency as a valid form of payment, across various industries.
Fast food
Burger King Venezuela accepts cryptocurrencies as payment.
AP
Restaurant Brands International is one of the world’s largest fast-food holding companies. It is the parent company of Burger King, Tim Hortons, and Popeyes.
Last year, Burger King Venezuela announced it will begin accepting bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It collaborated with Cryptobuyer, a platform that generates conversion of cryptocurrencies to normal currency, Yahoo Finance reported.
Yum Brands, which operates KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill, is also accepting cryptocurrencies.
The corporation permitted bitcoin as a valid payment method at Pizza Hut Venezuela last year. Yum Brands also partnered with CryptoBuyer to initiate the launch of crypto payment methods, according to Nasdaq.
For a short period of time, KFC Canada accepted the cryptocurrency as payment for products such as the Bitcoin Bucket, via a partnership with BitPay, per Yahoo Finance.
Big tech
PayPal announced in October 2020 that users can buy, sell, and hold selective cryptocurrencies through their Cash or Cash Plus accounts starting in 2021.
AP
After provisionally pausing from accepting the cryptocurrency as a valid payment method due to its volatility, Xbox is accepting bitcoin payments for Xbox store credits.
Meanwhile, PayPal announced in October 2020 that users can buy, sell, and hold selective cryptocurrencies through their Cash or Cash Plus accounts, starting in 2021, Yahoo Finance reports.
Users will also have the ability to learn and track crypto within their PayPal app.
Although Amazon does not directly permit bitcoin as a valid payment method, you can buy Amazon vouchers and gift cards through Bitrefill. This is a crypto-only company that authorizes users to top up subscription-based services, and then spend them on Amazon.
Drinks companies
Coca-Cola Amatil announced their partnership with an online assets platform, Centrapay, to permit bitcoin as an official payment method last year.
AP
Coca-Cola Amatil is one of the world’s biggest bottlers and distributors of non-alcoholic and ready-to-drink beverages in the Asia Pacific region.
Last year, the company announced in a press release their partnership with an online assets platform, Centrapay, to permit bitcoin as an official payment method. There are about 2,000 vending machines in Australia and New Zealand that now accept cryptocurrency, according to a CoinDesk report.
Elsewhere, Starbucks began testing bitcoin payments last year through the app, Bakkt, Nasdaq reported.
This week, the digital asset marketplace app launched their digital-wallet application, in which users can convert bitcoin into USD to reload their Starbucks Card.
The cryptocurrency ether runs on the Ethereum network.
Dado Ruvic/Reuters
The price of ether surged to an all-time high Friday in lockstep with bitcoin’s rally to just shy of $60,000.
“The main takeaway for me is that the increased capital flows into crypto is now making its way into more than just [bitcoin],” Jeffrey Wang of Amber Group told Insider.
Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, also attributed the surge in ether to the rise of decentralized finance, or DeFi.
The price of ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, surged to an all-time high Friday in lockstep with the rally in the price of bitcoin.
Ether climbed to a high of $2,077 at around 11 a.m. ET. It first broke the $2,000 threshold around 9:50 am ET Friday. The digital asset for the ethereum network has gained 177% in 2021 alone and 1,370% in the past 12 months.
“It’s very positive to see [ether] rally along with [bitcoin] which has been the de facto flag bearer for crypto assets,” Jeffrey Wang, Head of America’s at Amber Group, told Insider. “The main takeaway for me is that the increased capital flows into crypto is now making its way into more than just [bitcoin].”
Wang also said investor diversification bodes well for the whole cryptocurrency space, which has seen a broader rally in recent weeks, boosted by the economic recovery from the pandemic-led recession and the third round of stimulus checks under the Biden administration.
“[Bitcoin] is a benchmark for investors’ confidence in store of value, while interest in assets like [ether] that focus on the programmable, smart contract side of the ecosystem show investors optimism for the utility and potential of decentralized finance,” John Wu, President at Ava Labs, the team behind Avalanche, told Insider. “Ethereum breaking past this threshold may result in a paradigm shift that will benefit the two to three smart contract networks gaining real traction with decentralized finance.”
Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink lab,a decentralized oracle network, also attributed ether’s rally to the rise of decentralized finance, or DeFi, an umbrella term for various applications that use public blockchains and crypto assets to disrupt the traditional financial sectors.
“Ethereum users are now relying on DeFi applications in order to lend, borrow, earn yield, create derivatives, options, and even trade, all without the reliance of any centralized third party like a bank or a fintech like Robinhood,” Nazarov told Insider, adding that this new sector, worth over $45 billion, is the fastest growing in the cryptocurrency industry.
“I would expect to see more users utilize DeFi on Ethereum as they hunt for yield that ranges in the double digits,” Nazarov said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the total value locked into DeFi apps on ethereum surges past hundreds of billions of dollars.”
