Online payments giant PayPal will start to accept cryptocurrency as a medium of exchange at its millions of global merchants, the firm’s president and CEO revealed on Tuesday ahead of a formal announcement. News broke regarding PayPal’s rumored decision to accept cryptocurrencies early on March 30. Later in the day, the firm’s CEO, Dan Schulman, confirmed to Reuters that the rumors were true and that an official statement would be released imminently. The new system is expected to feature a crypto checkout service where users can pay for goods and services at approved vendors using their stored coins. The system …

Controversial Bitcoin (BTC) spin-off Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has hit new all-time lows against its parent after Tesla publicly rejected using it for payments. In a series of tweets on March 24, CEO and "Technoking" Elon Musk confirmed that U.S. customers could now buy a Tesla using BTC — but his company shunned "fork products" such as BCH. Tesla: Don't send us anything but BTC Bitcoin Cash spun off from the Bitcoin blockchain in August 2017 and has since remained a controversial entity within cryptocurrency. Proponents claim supremacy over Bitcoin thanks to BCH fees being far lower while transactions also tend …

A report by Deutsche Bank Research said that Bitcoin (BTC) has become “too important to ignore” and may attract regulation by the end of 2021. Deutsche Bank analysts expect Bitcoin to reach a turning point in about “two or three years” when it will be clear whether Bitcoin will evolve into an asset class or not. In the short term, the report forecast Bitcoin to “remain ultra volatile.” A different report by Bank of America provided some insight into the possible reasons for Bitcoin’s volatility. Bank of America analysts estimated that Bitcoin price may rise by one percent when there …

SBI Crypto, the mining subsidiary of Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings, has opened its mining pool to the general public. As one of the fruits of a strategic partnership between SBI and the German tech firm Northern Data AG, the pool reportedly now ranks 11th globally, according to SBI's announcement on March 19. It mines three assets, Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin SV (BSV), with a revenue measured in dollars per terahash per day of $0.3897, $0.3805 and $0.3519 respectively. Prior to its partnership with Northern Data AG and the Texas-based data center operator Whinstone US back in …

Institutional investors have continued to pump money into cryptocurrency investment products in Q1 of this year, according to a report by CoinShares. The inflows of $4.2 billion in the first quarter have broken the previous record of $3.9 billion made in the fourth quarter of 2020. NYDIG CEO Robby Gutmann recently told listeners of the “On the Brink” podcast to brace for a slew of announcements by the firm’s strategic partners. Gutmann said the announcements could bring new levels of “Bitcoin adoption, Bitcoin availability, Bitcoin products and services within the existing traditional financial landscape.” While new products and services that …

The 2017 Bitcoin (BTC) bull run was led by retail traders, long-term crypto believers and Bitcoin whales. However, the tide turned in 2020 as institutional investors became the catalyst for the latest crypto bull run. However, data compiled by JPMorgan Chase shows that retail traders have made a strong comeback in the first quarter of this year. JPMorgan analysts used data from Square and Paypal to determine that retail investors bought 187,426 BTC for Q1 2021, which is more than the institutional purchase of 172,684 BTC during the same period. While this data may not be bulletproof, it gives a …

Bitcoin (BTC) missed hitting a new all-time high on March 11 by just a whisker as Oracle Corporation denied rumors that it had purchased about 72,000 Bitcoin. This suggests that traders could be looking for signs of greater institutional adoption to boost Bitcoin’s price further. One of the main factors that may have kept several institutional investors at bay is the lack of regulatory clarity but this could be on the verge of changing. In a recent interview on the Thinking Crypto podcast, Hester Peirce, a commissioner at the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, said that Gary Gensler’s nomination …

Long-term investors use dips in a strong uptrend to buy while short-term investors are fixated on calling a top. In the past few days, data from Glassnode has shown significantly sized Bitcoin (BTC) outflows from Coinbase exchange, which is a sign of accumulation according to analysts. It is encouraging to note that the demand is not limited to one exchange and data from Material Indicators shows buy orders of $100,000 and higher are reaching an all-time high. This shows that the influx of institutional investors and large corporations entering the crypto sector continues to accelerate. Proof of this comes as …

Data from Glassnode shows that Bitcoin (BTC) held on centralized exchanges has dropped by about 20% in the past 12 months. This suggests that investors are withdrawing their Bitcoin to the cold storage with a view of possibly holding them for the long term. This has reduced the available supply while the demand has continued to increase. The arrival of exchange-traded funds could increase the supply crunch further. After the success of the TSX Purpose Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, Canada could launch the second Bitcoin ETF by Galaxy Digital Capital Management, a subsidiary of Galaxy Digital. The approval of Bitcoin ETFs …

Analysts expect the U.S. economy to stage a strong recovery in the second half of this year as coronavirus vaccines are distributed and economic activity begins to increase. As growth picks up, inflation concerns are also on the rise. Speculation is rife that the U.S. Federal Reserve may have to adjust its dovish stance to hold down interest rates. In anticipation, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield has jumped from about 1% at the start of the year to 1.626%. This has resulted in profit-booking in assets considered as risky and as equities pullback, a temporary pause may be put on …

Bitcoin’s (BTC) resilience in the face of global market uncertainty continues to attract new institutional investors. Dan Loeb, the CEO of New York-based asset management firm Third Point, said that he has been “doing a deep dive into crypto.” To strengthen the venture investments team, Third Point hired former pro-crypto Goldman Sachs analyst Heath Terry, according to Reuters. Loeb’s move into crypto seems to have prodded 'Shark Tank' star Kevin O'Leary to allocate a portion of his portfolio to Bitcoin. Additionally, O'Leary hinted that every operating company that he had invested in was considering investing in Bitcoin. Billionaire Tim Draper …

The U.S. bond yields have softened and this has ignited investor's appetite for risk-on assets. After a negative closing last week, the S&P 500 has started the current week on a positive note. Thi bullish sentiment has also rubbed on to the crypto sector, which is surging higher, led by Bitcoin (BTC). After Tesla and Mastercard’s foray into Bitcoin, analysts at Citigroup believe that Bitcoin is at a “tipping point,” which could either take it mainstream and make it the preferred currency for world trade or result in a “speculative implosion.” Citi’s analysts expect the central bank digital currencies and …