Payment giants enter the Crypto Assets field, leading a new direction in industry development

Recently, a well-known company in the global payment sector announced the completion of an innovative transaction: using the USDC stablecoin backed by the US dollar for settlement on its payment system via the Ethereum network. This move is seen as an important step in bridging the traditional finance and digital currency worlds.

After the announcement, the price of Bitcoin surged rapidly, breaking through the $59,000 mark, with an increase of over 8%.

The payment company stated that it has partnered with a crypto platform to launch a pilot project and plans to open this feature to more partners later this year.

According to media reports, this payment giant has integrated crypto applications into its network, enabling its more than 60 million users to make payments using Crypto Assets.

Supporting the use of digital currencies as a new settlement method marks a significant advancement in the company's "network of networks" strategy. This strategy aims to facilitate the efficient flow of various forms of funds both within and outside its network.

By leveraging its global influence, partnerships, and reputation, the company is committed to creating unique value for the ecosystem and making Crypto Assets more secure, practical, and widespread in the payment field.

Institutions are vying to enter the Crypto Assets market

Since last year, various institutions have been laying out plans in the Bitcoin and Crypto Assets field. This trend may also have influenced the decisions of the aforementioned payment giants, showing that institutional investors also have the psychology of chasing highs and cutting losses.

Prior to this, another mainstream payment platform had announced support for buying and selling Crypto Assets such as Bitcoin and payment services. The platform's CEO even personally recorded a video demonstrating the process of purchasing jeans with Bitcoin.

Platforms like this hold a position in the overseas payment field comparable to mainstream payment applications in the domestic market. Being able to directly purchase Crypto Assets or use Crypto Assets for payments on such important platforms will undoubtedly bring tremendous traffic and a positive impact to the Crypto Assets industry.

A well-known investor stated on social media that as a certain payment platform announced support for Bitcoin, major banks are all discussing how to support Bitcoin, which is no longer an option.

A certain investment fund, known as the "crypto whale" in the coin circle, has increased its investment efforts this year, continuously buying in large quantities. As of now, the number of bitcoins held by this fund has reached 650,000 coins, making it the largest institutional holder in the world.

The operation model of the fund determines that it can only continuously buy and cannot sell. Investors hand over cash and Bitcoin to the fund, which is equivalent to locking these assets, and the market does not have to worry about so many coins being sold off on a large scale.

In addition to institutions providing investment access, there are companies that treat Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset. A certain technology company has become the world's first publicly listed company to officially include Bitcoin in its corporate reserves. Currently, the company has purchased over 20,000 coins through various channels and is continuously looking for opportunities to increase its holdings.

The company's founder has also begun to accumulate Bitcoin personally, having purchased over ten thousand coins, becoming a "ten-thousand coin holder."

After this company took action, other large companies also began to hoard Bitcoin one after another. In October 2020, a mobile payment giant announced an investment of $50 million to purchase approximately 4,709 Bitcoin as reserve assets. Five days later, an asset management company managing over $10 billion in assets revealed that it had purchased more than 10,000 coins, worth about $114 million, as part of its asset reserve strategy.

What is more remarkable is that on February 8 of this year, a well-known electric vehicle manufacturer suddenly announced an investment of $1.5 billion to purchase Bitcoin and stated that it would soon support purchasing its products with Bitcoin.

This move immediately ignited the market, with the price of Bitcoin rising nearly 14% within an hour, reaching a high of $44,195.

Even some traditional financial analysts who were once critical of Bitcoin and Crypto Assets have begun to change their stance, with some even predicting that the price of Bitcoin will reach $400,000 during the bull market in 2021.

Crypto Assets Going Mainstream

With the promotion of numerous institutions, Crypto Assets were no longer viewed as an alternative market in 2021, and more and more institutions and investors began to pay attention to the blockchain and Crypto Assets field.

Overall, the participation of these institutions may bring the following impacts to the industry:

1. Promote industry compliance and move towards the mainstream world

In the early days of Bitcoin's emergence, it was widely used for illegal transactions, posing numerous challenges for regulation. As a result, regulatory agencies in various countries have maintained a cautious attitude towards Bitcoin and Crypto Assets.

Today, with major institutions entering the market in large numbers, Bitcoin's market capitalization has surpassed one trillion dollars, and the global influence of Bitcoin and the Crypto Assets market is no longer comparable. This has forced regulatory agencies to actively respond, formulate relevant laws and regulations, and promote the industry towards compliance. Countries such as the United States, Singapore, and Japan have begun to explore the integration of Crypto Assets with traditional finance at the regulatory level, no longer rejecting it outright. This will provide more policy support for industry development and propel the Crypto world into a new stage of normalization and mainstream adoption.

2. Expand market consensus to attract more investors

In the past, due to restrictions from the government and regulatory agencies, many ordinary people and investors were unwilling to understand Bitcoin and Crypto Assets, holding a skeptical attitude towards their basic principles and value, not to mention investing in Crypto Assets.

Now, more and more institutions and enterprises support the use of Crypto Assets for settlement or payment, such as a certain electric vehicle company accepting Bitcoin for car purchases, a certain payment platform supporting the direct purchase of Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ethereum, etc., and a certain payment giant supporting the use of USDC for settlement. This gives more users the opportunity to come into contact with Crypto Assets, recognize their value and advantages, and gradually change their original attitudes. They begin to further understand Bitcoin, learn about the operational mechanisms and principles of the Crypto Assets market, and ultimately transform from bystanders or opponents into real Crypto Assets investors.

3. Enhance investor confidence and lead a super bull market

Large institutions are characterized by their large capital and a tendency for long-term investments. They primarily value Bitcoin's anti-inflation and store of value properties and are not easily frightened into selling like retail investors. Therefore, as more and more institutions start to accumulate and purchase Bitcoin, it continuously stimulates the enthusiasm of a wide range of investors, enhances market confidence, and triggers a sustained upward trend. This is also why the bull market of 2021 is considered to have shifted from a retail-driven market to an institutional-driven market.

Seize the opportunity

Any great new thing will face skepticism and criticism in its early development, as its existence often clashes with the mainstream at the time. However, they represent the future and a new historical development trend.

Bitcoin is such a controversial new entity that has been small at first. After more than a decade of development, despite facing multiple crackdowns and blockades, it has not only survived but has instead shown increasingly strong vitality and value.

In the upcoming digital economy era, digital assets may become a necessity in everyone's daily life, and allocating quality digital assets may become a required course for every investor.

As more and more institutions, even sovereign nations, begin to invest in Bitcoin in the future, this market will gradually mature and stabilize, and opportunities may not be as abundant as they are now.

As an investor who got involved relatively early, are you ready to embrace the arrival of this new era?