Holiday season ushers good tidings for the crypto ecosystem

As winter set in, the crypto enthusiasts were having concerns about the crypto market. The recent drops in prices even made some speculate a complete market collapse. But, it seems that the holiday season has other things in mind. Crypto is gaining favor despite drops in prices. Also the prices have also picked up recently, probably to stay in tune with the holiday spirit.

Providing some of the hype around cryptocurrencies is the CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor. He recently talked about his BTC (bitcoin) strategy as well as his price predictions. He revealed that he personally owns at least 17,732 bitcoins and that he never sold any of them. Nor that he believes that they should be sold ever.

MicroStrategy actually owns 122,478 BTC, worth almost $6 billion at the current price. Michael Saylor foresees that BTC will eventually hit a $600,000 price per coin. But it won’t stop there he says and in the end it will reach even $6 million. Saylor described BTC as unstoppable and that it will “emerge as a $100 trillion asset class”.

The CEO has repeatedly stated in the past that BTC will replace gold. He believes that just as gold has been the most desirable store of value, bitcoins will slowly take over. His strategy continues to be: “acquire and hold bitcoin long-term”. That and “purchase bitcoin through use of excess cash flows, and debt and equity transactions.” Seeing how the trend of the crypto market each ear is to increase in value, Michael Saylor’s strategy seems to be working. Some stay on the sidelines thinking only time will tell. Others get right in the heat of things and become industry forerunners.

Visa Partners With 60 Crypto Platforms to Let Consumers Spend Digital Currency at 80 Million Merchants

More good news for the crypto community this holiday season! This news arrived recently as credit card giant Visa becomes committed to growing crypto ecosystem. To do this Visa’s head of crypto has revealed that the payments giant has partnered with about 60 leading crypto platforms. They did this in order to “to launch card programs that make it easy for consumers to convert and spend digital currency at 80 million merchant locations worldwide.” He emphasized, “We’ve built a lot of momentum in this space, and we’ll continue to support the crypto ecosystem in several ways.” Cuy Sheffield explained how the number of employees working with crypto has increased to several hundreds from just a handful in the beginning.

Visa’s head of crypto also emphasized how they more than doubled the number of partnerships with crypto platforms in the last 18 months reaching an impressive 60 as of recently. Among the partnerships there are big names like FTX, Blockfi, Crypto.com, Coinbase and Binance. With their help and others Visa launched card programs that make it easier for consumers to spend, consume and trade digital currency at over 80 million merchant locations worldwide.

When describing how will Visa program will actually work the executive said: “Crypto-linked cards make it easy for consumers to convert and spend digital currencies, without requiring coffee shops, dry cleaners, or grocery stores to directly accept crypto at the checkout,” he continued. “All the conversions from crypto to fiat happen instantly, behind the scenes. In-store, online, it’s as easy as a standard Visa transaction.” This marks another step towards making crypto payments at regular stores an everyday occurrence, further cementing the role and importance of cryptocurrencies in today’s society.

Sheffield described Visa’s efforts as creating a bridge connecting the crypto ecosystem. He said that with the enthusiasm behind crypto they have also gained a lot of momentum and they will continue to support the crypto ecosystem and community surrounding it in several ways.

Turkish Lira Slump Contributes to Rise in Turkey’s Daily Crypto Trades to Over One Million

When one falls, another might rise as a direct result. The holiday season will not necessarily be good to all. As such the US dollar is not the only official currency not holding out to well. The Turkish lira has also depreciated by about 40% since September this year. Cryptocurrency was already popular before but, now, in inflation-stricken Turkey the trades have surged to over one million per day. Prior to this recent surge, cryptocurrency trade also surpassed one million after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan unexpectedly dismissed the governor of the central bank.

Naci Agbal, the then-governor’s sudden dismissal created inflation fears among the Turks which had adverse effects on the lira. It eventually dropped by more than 10% and only recovered after a longer period of relative stability. That period was also the time in which cryptocurrencies trade dropped for a while under the one million mark, only to surge again recently with the latest plunge of lira.

One of the causes that might have influenced the surge in recent cryptocurrency trades could be attributed to restrictions imposed during the year that made it increasingly difficult for Turks to convert lira to gold. Of course the increase of bitcoin value in November was also a very important factor as well. That coupled with the overall good sentiment by investors and companies when it comes to the crypto ecosystem. Although the sentiment around crypto dropped a little before the holiday season, it has recently picked up again. It terms of preferred cryptocurrencies the Turks seem to have taken a liking of bitcoin as well as stablecoin USDT.

Reports that Turks are increasingly switching to cryptocurrencies come a few months after the central bank prohibited the use of crypto assets when paying for goods and services. Push back against crypto also comes from president Erdogan who reportedly said that the country is at war with cryptocurrencies. But of course, as we know the more push back there is against something, especially if it is official governmental pushback, the more of an adverse effect it will have. People’s trust in governments has never been anywhere near high.

Dubai to Create Crypto Zone, Binance Joins Effort

This holiday brings another interested party to the table, namely the Dubai World Trade Center. The authorities in Dubai Arab Emirates recently made a move in order to support new industries related to crypto. For this they plan to get help from companies like Binance. The idea is that the Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) will become a comprehensive ecosystem for cryptocurrencies and providers of related services. The government of Dubai announced that the DWTC will also play the role of a regulator for the sector. They will be enforcing “rigorous standards for investor protection, anti-money laundering (AML), combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) compliance and cross border deal flow tracing.”

Dubai authorities also emphasized that the DWTC will work together with the private sector. They will also employ other relevant entities to create an attractive environment for the crypto industry. Among the most important collaborations we can count Binance, the world’s largest digital asset exchange in terms of volume. Dubai wants to license such crypto trading platforms and other blockchain businesses.

Binance’s founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao recently bought a home in Dubai. He then met key representatives of the local crypto industry while praising the emirate’s pro-crypto stance on social media. There have been quite a few countries that are not only disregarding crypto but actively fighting against this new ecosystem. In this regard UAE (United Arab Emirates) is fully deserving of praise. Their stance is bound to attract grand opportunities for the crypto market. Changpeng Zhao was also quoted as saying: “Today, the adoption of crypto and blockchain technology remains in its infancy, but through our leadership position and expertise, combined with the long-term vision of Dubai, we plan to develop a regulatory framework appropriate to fit the fast-moving and progressive nature of virtual assets.”

Speculations as to why DWTC made this move included that in order to sustain it’s ever-growing economy Dubai has been trying to boost non-oil related industries. Turning Dubai World Trade Centre into a regulated zone for cryptocurrency operations is part of these efforts. Whatever the case may be, the crypto community can rejoice at gaining another strong ally in promoting the crypto ecosystem.

And thus, we see how this holiday is shaping out to be an all-around boon for the crypto ecosystem. Here’s to hoping that this trend continues towards the New Year and next year as well!