Bitcoin’s Rise seems Unstoppable in 2021

An incredibly turbulent year for crypto seems only to be ramping up. After weeks of price gains and strong market movements, bitcoin is once again close to another record. Also, there is a lot of trading action going on in other cryptocurrency markets, especially the ethereum network. Because of that, there is almost a certainty in the air that the coming period will be just as exciting. This is something that most cryptocurrency supporters, traders, and investors hoped to get for the last 12 years, or ever since the bitcoin cryptocurrency blockchain began working.

As this process of excitement and feverish expectancy takes place many are certain that the crypto world is in for another incredible ride. Yet there is a very apparent changing paradigm that is gripping not just the crypto domain but the entire globe. Some are even certain that this means that the rise of the bitcoin value and market capitalization is going to be practically unstoppable in the coming year. However, like usually there are strong counterarguments to this notion.

The Elon Musk Factor

Like him or not, there is no denying that Elon Musk has what it takes to stir things up. That is very much true when it comes to things like esports, social media, and cryptocurrencies, among other tech-native things. Now, he managed to do the same once again with the bitcoin cryptocurrency network. Previously, Musk had days of fun on Twitter where he talked about dogecoin and why he likes it. That also resulted in a rise in dogecoin prices and market capitalization.

However, the bombshell did not come from Musk’s Twitter account, but from his Tesla Motors company. It is relevant that it purchased 1.5 billion USD in bitcoin and since then, the value of the same token has skyrocketed upwards. Also, it is important to note that the same occurs in an environment where news of a similar magnitude keeps cropping up regularly, and most of them are very much great developments for this domain.

Mastercard Move

The bitcoin community began to see a rapid change in fortune when it comes to institutional adoption of its functionality in 2020. Back then, PayPal announced that it would begin rolling in crypto support for buying, holding, and selling crypto tokens, including the most popular among them – BTC. That massive change in the policy of one of the biggest payment processing platforms in the world signaled a wider shift in corporate mentality when it comes to both adopting cryptocurrency functionalities and investing liquid funds into crypto.

Now, Mastercard also announced that it too will be enabling cryptocurrency use on its network. This comes with a range of caveats and some experts believe that it will simply start using some stablecoin for this purpose and steer clear of other networks. This is due to the statement where Mastercard believes it will take on the rest of the pack once the tokens are more financially stable. The same will not happen anytime soon. However, the announcement of adoption, whatever it might turn out to ultimately be, is still a huge step forward not just for this company, but the crypto community as well.

Philanthropy

The expansion of cryptocurrency use is not only limited to the corporate and investment domains. Instead, there is also a growing presence of crypto in different philanthropy domains. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and an outspoken cryptocurrency supporter recently started a fund along with Jay-Z. The aim of this fund is to provide crypto adoption across the developing and underdeveloped parts of the world. It presently holds around 23 million USD worth of bitcoin tokens or around 500 BTC.

With that, the fund hopes to be able to help millions in these regions to start using crypto in their everyday lives. This is by no means the only such initiative. Other more or less similar projects are underway already and are helping individuals in places like many in places like Venezuela or Hong Kong. While these are a lot less interesting to the mainstream media than the stories about prices and record-breakings, they still present a strong case for overall rising cryptocurrency use and increased adoption. They also address what was so far a substantial hurdle on the road of cryptocurrency expansion, which is normalizing the use of BTC tokens in regular lives or ordinary individuals.

Hot Mess

Simply put, there is an ongoing process of progressive normalization of the use of bitcoin. What was once only the space of interest of those who are tech-savvy or crypto-ideologically inclined towards decentralized technology is gradually becoming the sphere of interest for everyone. However, there are two major issues with that process. First of all, anyone who began any kind of cryptocurrency activity in the past couple of months still has not experienced a massive pullback of prices. If history is anything to go by, the same will take place in the not-so-distant future. Once that pullback is in full swing, the party will be over for many newcomers to the crypto domain. Most will not at that point decide to play the lawn game but panic and try to pull out as much money as they can from the crumbling market.

This will mean a cascading process like the one that took place in 2018 with the start of the now-infamous Crypto Winter. Secondly, the level of volatility is going nowhere in the crypto market. It is in direct confrontation with any notion of using digital currency on a wide scale. Practically no one can use any cryptocurrency that can oscillate up to 10 percent per day and then be employed for regular financial activities. Yet, it is precisely this volatility that allows for the massive spikes in price value. Also, with companies now being in the picture and doling out billions of USD to invest in crypto, the volatility will be here to stay for some time. So, the question of further bitcoin ascendance is not if, but when. However, the same ascendance will come at the price of ordinary users, one way or another.

Source: Forbes