In this digital age of technology, where everything is a click away, it was high time ‘online’ money introduced itself. Before we get on with our topic, let me first define bitcoin for you.
Wondering what is Bitcoin and how it is beneficial for investments?
For starters, bitcoin or ‘online’ money is a virtual cryptocurrency. Simply, it’s an online version of cash which you can use to purchase goods and services, however, it’s still not widely accepted.
How do people get bitcoins?
Now that we understand what bitcoin is, let’s move on to how people get access to bitcoins. There are three main ways of accessing bitcoins:
- By buying bitcoins through ‘real’ money.
- By selling things and letting people pay you with bitcoins.
- By creating them using a computer.
Benefits of Bitcoin
Launched in 2009, Bitcoin became has become a huge hit today for its various benefits such as:
- Compared to traditional currencies, it offers more privacy and secrecy.
- It has greater liquidity in comparison to other cryptocurrencies.
- It has relatively lower transaction fees.
All You Need to Know About Bitcoin Investments in 2021
Bitcoin has been in the news for a while now. The year 2020 has been a rollercoaster ride for everyone, especially for businesses. Many small and large firms had invested huge amounts in bitcoin and 2021 will be the year of whether the investment succeeds or not.
This could initiate a whole new wave of institutional investors to follow their steps. For instance, MicroStrategy’s $425 million investment in bitcoin has already drastically increased in value (as of 18 December 2020). Such figures shall interest any business or investor.
Interestingly, 2021 may be the year of bitcoin as bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have seen a rise in take-up from the likes of large payment companies, PayPal and Square in 2020—something that’s anticipated to have a major effect in 2021, as well as speculative interest by established financers are all clues to bitcoin making waves in 2021.
Furthermore, the surge in Bitcoin price across 2020 along with the support from Wall Street and some of the world’s major investors is proof that Bitcoin is going to strengthen its foothold this year. Throughout 2020, the price of bitcoin and other digital currencies have doubled. If the bitcoin price continues to soar as suspected, it may trigger another flow of headlines, cementing crypto-currency strongly on the front pages and pushing them to the front-seat of global awareness. This is potentially equal to lighting a fire under customer demand.
Moreover, Bitcoin is gradually becoming the talk of the town. According to LaForge, Bitcoins value increased by 80% in 2020 compared to 2019, rising from 90% to 170%.
It’s absolutely fascinating how bitcoin is climbing the ladder gradually with wealthy investors buying at the same time the supply is getting rare. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to claim that such attempts shall push the prices of bitcoins high enough for them to be able to compete with the gold market.
Based on the December 16th, 2020 statistics, Bitcoins performance has been gradually increasing from 50% in February 2020 and reaching 200% in January 2021. This brings us to the conclusion that bitcoin may experience a further rise above $100,000 in 2021. Not only this but, bitcoin has remarkably outshined the performance of both gold and S&P 500 index starting from 100 in 2017 and reaching 250 in 2020 while gold remained between 100-150.
Noted in an investment strategy report of 2020, LaForge claimed that over the past 12 years, bitcoin and other digital currencies have possibly risen from nothing to $560 billion in market capitalization.
To top it up, the interest in bitcoins is increasing day by day, perhaps because it’s extremely easy to buy bitcoins now.
Moreover, as previously mentioned, the equivalents of PayPal and Square have seen major success in the US. Currently, they’re purchasing approximately 100% of newly-minted bitcoin specifically to satisfy the demand they’re receiving from US customers.
Apart from this, several other factors have led to the immense success of bitcoins such as the impactful halving of bitcoin which took place on May 12, 2020 which slashed the reward from 12.5 Bitcoin to 6.5. Bitcoin reaching its all-time high price shows the achievement of the event.
Furthermore, the government is equally active in developing bitcoins. The year 2020 had seen phenomenal progress in crypto taxation. The Internal Revenue Service of the US sent a questionnaire to all the Americans regarding crypto holding, while the Economic Cooperation Organization and Development published special reports on the topic.
All in all, factors like the boom in emerging global markets, rising institutional adoption, and growing developer activities show that the crypto community is expecting a dozen of developments soon. It seems safe to say that 2021 will be bigger and better for bitcoin!