Last year has been a great year for cryptocurrencies, especially for Bitcoin (BTC), the leading digital currency in the world by market value, which rose from its March 2020 low of $3,870 to its all-time high value above $20k.
Bitcoin being the pioneering digital asset in the crypto world, rose to about $42,000 per token at the beginning of this year as well. This coin also has received quite notable recognition and adoption in various established companies. Companies such as MassMutual and MicroStrategy acquired a large amount of the coin.
With this, the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Metal Pay, a digital asset payment gateway Marshall Hayner said he believes BTC has transcended to another stage of acceptance and adoption on its life road map.
Hayner said on the 26th of January that many companies, corporations, hedge funds, and other institutions have begun acquiring more of the virtual asset to their balance sheet following the dazzling rise as BTC reached a new all-time high. He said further that being the oldest, popular, and the most volatile cryptocurrency in the world, Bitcoin has gained more ground and hedge against the consistent inflation of the fiat currency (EUR, USD, and all), and this is what I called the ‘fourth stage’ in the journey of crypto adoption.
He explained that the earlier stages he meant include the buoyancy, speculation, the utility, and then the final acceptance.
Bitcoin, launched in 2009, has paved the way for thousands of other cryptocurrencies to exist. When it started, it was virtually worth nothing, even barely a dollar. A programmer, Laszlo Hanyecz, once paid a sum of 10,000 BTC for just pizzas and caught the attention of the internet. But the price has risen to different milestones over the years.
The significance Bitcoin has gained over the years has made different mainstream financial institutions declare their position with the coin and has made the allocation more common than years before. It is recorded that MassMutual spent over $100 Million on acquiring digital assets while MicroStrategy allocated more than a sum of $1 Billion capital towards acquiring Bitcoin.