PayPal Payments Now in Crypto, World’s First CBDC Officially Launched, BTC Price Goes Above $13k While Blockchain Goes Up in Space
In this edition:
- Crypto Payments via PayPal Available in 2021
- The Bahamas’ CBDC Officially Launched
- BTC Did It Again: $13k… And Then What?
- Blockchain Up in Space
The world keeps spinning and Anchor’s Roundups keep coming! Hi for the 63rd time, my fellow Anchorians, how’s your week been?
We’re slowly discovering what 2021 has in store for the crypto community, but judging by this week’s news pieces, whatever it is, it will most certainly be awesome. So, PayPal updates, CBDCs in action, BTC bulls, and extraterrestrial blockchain use cases – not too bad for one mere week, huh?
As always, we’re discussing various topics inside the world of crypto and hoping you’ll gladly join us in this 63rd crusade. Without further ado, these are the events that have marked the week behind us – embark on and enjoy your reading!
Crypto Payments via PayPal Available in 2021
Not the first time that we see PayPal and crypto in the same sentence since people have been speculating about this for some time, but now it’s official – starting 2021, PayPal will offer the service of crypto payments and purchase of different cryptocurrencies, too!
In this manner, PayPal customers will be able to use cryptocurrencies at the 26 million merchants on its network, and to buy, sell, and hold BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC. This online payment giant is having big plans and wants to work with central banks as well, according to the company’s CEO Dan Schulman:
“We are eager to work with central banks and regulators around the world to offer our support, and to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce.”
How does it work? Well, the merchants will receive fiat, you will be paying with crypto, and PayPal will take care of the conversion. Simple, right? Additionally, PayPal will feature a hot wallet for cryptocurrencies available, so the customers will have the ability to buy, sell, and hold crypto via the PayPal apps.
You may not remember, but PayPal was initially involved with Facebook’s Libra by being one of the founding members of the Libra Association. This love story didn’t have a happy ending, but PayPal remained interested in cryptocurrencies nonetheless.
PayPal has 346 million active accounts and, only in the Q2 of 2020, $222 billion worth in transaction volume. The company’s switch to cryptocurrencies can only increase crypto adoption with this mass access since it’s already doing wonders for BTC price, but more about that in our third news piece. We’re truly looking forward to seeing how this story unfolds!
The Bahamas’ CBDC Officially Launched
A lot of countries are piloting, but the Bahamas officially did it first – the ‘’sand dollar’’, this country’s central bank digital currency, is now launched and available for every citizen to use!
On Monday (Oct 20th), The Central Bank of the Bahamas launched sand dollar which is now available to all 393,000 residents. Each sand dollar is pegged to the Bahamian dollar, which is by extension pegged to USD.
The Bahamas are an archipelago (a group of islands), and the issuance of this CBDC means solving the problem of (un)banking nationwide by increasing financial inclusion.
Of course, this Caribbean country was there at the very beginning of the CBDC emergence story. For a few years, the country’s central bank has been working on the best technical solution – and in 2019, the first pilot test was successfully conducted on the islands of Exuma and Abaco (total population around 25,000).
Now every resident of the Bahamas with a mobile phone can use this digital currency for purchase and store! While Venezuela has Petro (national cryptocurrency), the Bahamas’ sand dollar is officially the first digital currency issued by a central bank available for mass usage within a sovereign country.
China, Sweden, Russia, the EU, and many other countries are still in process of developing a CBDC, with China in the lead at the moment. The US still thinks it’s better ‘’to do it right than to do it first’’. In any case, we can’t wait to see who’s next!
BTC Did It Again: $13k… And Then What?
The BTC bulls are back! Price finally went above the ‘’unbreakable’’ resistance line of $12,000 and, at the moment of writing, equals $12,958 per 1 BTC (CoinMarketCap). Such a green day is always a good day!
On Tuesday (Oct 21st), the BTC market pushed the price to $13,217, marking a new 2020 high. Experts agree that the official PayPal’s announcement has had a significant impact on these price movements (since its release, the price jumped almost $1.5k) – the online payment giant can only continue to do so by enabling hundreds of millions of users easy everyday access to cryptocurrencies. Imagine what it would be like if other major companies followed PayPal’s lead.
Another interesting piece of information is that the average transaction value for BTC has increased by 500% since July – four months ago, the average transaction was around $25,000, while now it’s approximately $151,000 per transfer.
Traders’ optimism naturally drives the price up, yet there are always inevitable ‘’external’’ factors to influence the price movements, exactly like this PayPal’s announcement. Some, on the other hand, believe that the market will soon cool down and settle in the $12k-$12.2k range.
Be that as it may, the recent events have definitely made waves within the crypto community and BTC traders, but in a good way. Bears or bulls, the experienced crypto enthusiasts have been through it all, and that’s the magic of Bitcoin. Nevertheless, it’s always the safest option to have a hedging mechanism in place, just in case.
We’ll see what this means for the other cryptocurrencies, but for now, e.g. the Tether Treasury has minted almost half a billion new USDT tokens while distributing 185 million tokens to exchanges and other addresses.
Blockchain Up in Space
The sky is no longer the limit for blockchain technology! Villanova University’s College of Engineering is, wait for it, sending a private Ethereum blockchain into space to test data exchange between satellites.
On Nov 20th, the Firefly Aerospace rocked will be launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California carrying a satellite dubbed ‘’Serenity’’ with Villanova’s private blockchain mounted on a Raspberry Pi.
“We want to be able to allow satellites to leverage the existing data that current satellites have, but that raises the question of how do you do that transfer and ensure that the transaction has taken place, even ensure that it’s been paid for. And this is where the blockchain plays a unique role,” said Hasshi Sudler, a professor at Villanova.
Well, who doesn’t like a story that includes both blockchain and space? A quick reminder that we talked about NASA’s deployment of blockchain for quadcopter comms in our 55th edition.
Process optimization is one of the main blockchain use cases – if you have a lengthy process involving a lot of data that costs a lot of money, then blockchain might just do the trick for you. Rest assured, if any interesting story about blockchain arises, we will keep you posted!
Final Thoughts
Alas, we leave another exciting edition of Weekly Crypto Roundup behind us. PayPal officially offering crypto payments, the first nationwide deployed CBDC, BTC’s new 2020 high, and blockchain being sent to space! Wow, what a time to be alive.
And this is only the beginning, imagine all the thrilling moments waiting to happen in the year to come. Nonetheless, there is no need to go ahead of ourselves. Standardly, for now, I will wish you fair winds and the following seas, my fellow Anchorians!
Disclaimer: The information provided in this post is not legal, accounting, or financial advice. I am not a lawyer, accountant, or financial advisor. I am not registered as an investment adviser with any federal or state regulatory agency. The Information should not be construed as investment or trading advice and is not meant to be a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any cryptocurrencies.
