Cryptocurrency

2017 has been a great year for Bitcoin and other altcoins. There has been a great rally that bitcoin even reached $20,000, and now that bitcoin price is just playing around $6,400, many are afraid that it will no longer have any value in the future. For those who currently owns bitcoin and other altcoins may now be nervous and some who are thinking of going in may have doubts but with the current price, now is the great time for new investors to come in. While there are doubts about cryptocurrencies, there are several news that indicates that bitcoin and other cryptos are here to stay:

The rise of Crypto in Turkey as Lira collapses 

According to Statista, there were around 18% of the people in Turkey who says they own a digital currency. Some will assume that Turkish people are turning to crypto as the lira collapses. Below is a chart from Statista:

And here is the current Lira to USD chart:

Starbucks and Bitcoin

Last August 3, 2018, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of NYSE formally announced that it will be launching BAKKT. According to their press release, this new company intends to leverage Microsoft cloud solutions to create an open and regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets. The new company is working with a marquee group of organizations including BCG, Microsoft, Starbucks, and others, to create an integrated platform that enables consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets on a seamless global network. 

According to Kelly Loeffler, CEO of Bakkt, “Bakkt is designed to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security, and utility”.

Sean Collins, Senior Partner, BCG even said that “Blockchain technology holds tremendous potential to enable new business models and trusted ecosystems, by leveraging and developing fundamental market infrastructure, the Bakkt platform will enable firms across industries to accelerate a range of innovation.”

Bakkt has already listed big names such as Microsoft, Starbucks, and BCG. Microsoft will provide cloud infrastructure for the service while Starbucks, as referred to the press release is the “flagship retailer” in this project. With Starbucks’ involvement, this could be the long-awaited break of bitcoin to be legalized in the payment system among the public. Starbucks  has helped mainstream mobile payment solutions in the US, it has worked with Square and has also a recent partnership with Alibaba to boost up its China operations.

Bitcoin ETF

This year, there has been several applications for Bitcoin ETF, one of which is the CBOE filing last June 26, 2018. According to the document:

“According to the Registration Statement, the Trust will invest in bitcoin only. The activities of the Trust are limited to issuing Baskets in exchange for the cash and/or bitcoin deposited with the Cash Custodian or Trust, respectively, as consideration; purchasing bitcoin from various exchanges and in OTC transactions; delivering cash and/or bitcoin in exchange for Baskets surrendered for redemption; maintaining insurance coverage for the bitcoin held by the Trust; and securing the bitcoin held by the Trust.”

There are also several others who filed for the ETF like the Winklevoss, VanEck, and SolidX and while the Winklevoss was denied the 3rd time, SEC has yet to decide on VanEck and SolidX.