Recent Developments in Cryptocurrency
Apple Spurs Mass Adoption
In the latest mass adoption news from the world of crypto, the Lightning Network has joined forces with Apple creating availability of Bluewallet on Apple Watches so users can now send and receive Bitcoin right from their watches. As a personal aside, I have found that sending family and friends small amounts of cryptocurrencies spurs them to do more research and aids in adoption. Though this function is currently still in Beta, it is available to all users and is currently functional. In addition to Lightening Network working with Apple, Verge (XVG) will soon be available to iOS users through a new wallet they are developing to allow their token to be held and trader by Apple product users. We are very excited about this here at Bybit and are pleased Apple is working with crypto companies to make coins and tokens available to Apple users.
Bitcoin Spending More Widespread than Ever
In statistics gained from CoinMap.org, 15,000 physical retailers worldwide are now accepting the father of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin, with the epicenters being the Americas, Western Europe, and Japan. In fact, the Japanese government has been an excellent innovator in the realm of spreading Bitcoin as it is now a legal form of payment and available to use with public services such as the high-speed railway.
Some of the largest companies now accepting Bitcoin for payment include Shopify, Overstock, Microsoft Windows store, Reddit, Subway, Wikipedia, Playboy, Dish Network, and many more. Even US states are beginning to wake up to the crypto revolution, as in Ohio, individuals and businesses can pay their state taxes in Bitcoin. These all represent excellent proof of use cases as it shows a growing demand to be able to pay in Bitcoin as well as the demand for business to start using/hoarding Bitcoin for financial purposes. Recent rumors have been flying around about eBay accepting Bitcoin, but this is not the case, as the company doesn’t have the foresight to realize accepting Bitcoin will soon be a necessity.
Kiwi’s Kill Cryptopia
New Zealand courts have forcibly placed Cryptopia in liquidation after the exchange was unable to pick itself back following the January hack which saw as much as 9.4% of their total savings stolen. The courts have appointed Auditing Firm Grant Thornton in charge of the mess in an attempt to open an investigation to reveal how best to handle making sure their customers are properly compensated.
“The liquidators are also working with independent experts and the relevant authorities with regards to the company’s obligations. Grant Thornton will be contacting all customers and suppliers about its appointment in the next few days.”
The exchange released an official statement on Twitter following the news of the court ruling which was met with obvious dismay and anger. All of this in the wake of the Binance hack has left the community scratching their heads as to why these giants are seemingly so vulnerable.
Old Man Scared of Bitcoin
Warren Buffet is making crypto headlines again after spreading FUD at his investor’s conference in Omaha on the 5th of May where he was quoted as saying many things he doesn’t understand and crypto, rallying his elderly troops who fear change to avoid it.
“It doesn’t do anything. It just sits there. It’s like a seashell or something, and that is not an investment to me.”
A funny thing to say after the huge market cap increase we’ve all seen over the past week. It’s clear that traditional investors who’s fortunes are built on fraud and fiat are getting scared at the prospect of decentralized wealth among ordinary people that they cannot control. These new statements come on the heels of Buffet’s own company’s stock underperforming year-to-date as the US stock market continues its little roller coaster ride.
This Week in Crypto
That’s some of the major gossip from this week in our little world we call crypto. Mass adoption occurring among large companies, more exchanges getting hacked and going under, old rich men scared of the future; sounds about right. Be sure to subscribe to our blog for more weekly updates like this, along with all of the latest news from Bybit!
