Italy’s State-Owned Bank Trials Digital Bonds on Polygon Blockchain
The European Central Bank initiated the trial to explore how blockchains can enhance central bank settlement.
Bitcoin has pushed through to break yet another record high value but has also broken a milestone market cap, pushing past $1 trillion USD for the first time ever.
Institutional interest in Bitcoin
As Bitcoin surged time and again in 2020, the interest in and adoption of cryptocurrency has increased consistently. Demand from both fresh retailers and institutions has spiked, with firms like Grayscale buying in and adding significant portions of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to its assets under management. MicroStrategy and Tesla stand as two notable companies to have converted massive amounts on their balance sheets to Bitcoin. By the end of January 2021, MicroStrategy had accumulated $1.095 billion USD worth of Bitcoin, standing at 71,079 Bitcoin at present. Tesla’s investment, which was announced on February 8th, saw Elon Musk’s company buy $1,5 billion USD worth of Bitcoin, a whopping 7.7% of the company’s treasury. As the news broke, the Bitcoin price rocketed to see its all-time-high price above $43,000 USD at the time.
Analysts foresee other institutions jumping on the Bitcoin wagon and rumours are circulating that Twitter might be the next major institutional firm to add Bitcoin to its balance sheets. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been a long-time advocate of Bitcoin’s decentralised nature so it wouldn’t be a surprise if these rumours hold weight.
Bitcoin’s breaks $1 trillion USD market cap
After a year of healthy trading, despite a crash in March, Bitcoin has gone from strength to strength in price. Over the past year, Bitcoin capitalisation has increased over ten-fold.
Experts pinpoint Bitcoin’s rise in the global economic market to several factors. Institutional investment, as mentioned above, has been a driving factor in adoption and attention to the market. Another key reason behind Bitcoin’s adoption is linked to the global pandemic. As economies suffered the effects of national lockdowns, travel bans, and supply chain issues, retailers have turned to the digital market to hedge against national currencies.