Bitcoin celebrated its 12th birthday on Sunday, the same day it reached an all-time high of $34,500 — 4.6 times higher than it was on the same day last year. The anniversary and record surge for the cryptocurrency caused many on social media to celebrate how far the currency has come from its early days as a volatile and often-mocked asset online.
Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey, a long-time advocate of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies (Square bought $50 million in BTC back in October), tweeted a happy birthday on Sunday in celebration. Twitter has since added a hashflag for tweets using #Bitcoin or #BTC which apparently will last until the year 3000, if that’s any indication of how Dorsey feels about the future BTC has ahead of it.
The success of the crypto boom is trickling downwards into the various companies which serve as cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets. Binance, Blockchain.com and Coinbase all saw their app store ratings increase by 71%, 23% and 9%, respectively since August 2020.
Linkedin Heacounts for crypto-related companies have also surged. In 2020 alone, the number of profiles on Linkedin which listed Blockchain.com as their employer grew from 145 to 647 — a 417% increase. Binance and Coinbase similarly saw increases of 163% and 68%, respectively.
The rise of BTC is beginning to support an entire ecosystem of crypto and blockchain-based businesses. Dorsey isn’t the only person bullish about Bitcoin’s prospects; the currency’s record 2020 also prompted many cryptocurrency exchanges, such as BitMax and Binance, to launch VC arms dedicated to funding crypto or blockchain-oriented startups, according to Forbes. Even Harvard has dipped into the crypto market, joining other companies in an $11.5 million investment in Blockstack back in 2019.
But while Bitcoin is doing better than ever, crypto and Bitcoin’s infamous volatility aren’t solved by a record-high dollar value. Bloomberg reported on Monday that after its record holiday and anniversary rally, BTC crashed nearly 17% in one day in its biggest crash since March before recovering. At the time of writing, Bitcoin has recovered to $33,842 — just a few hundred dollars below its record high. What the sudden dip and recovery means for BTC depends on who you ask: naysayers will likely argue that it’s a sign that Bitcoin, and crypto in general, hasn’t outgrown the volatility that makes it too risky an investment for the average person or investor to afford. Fans will boast the quick return to form as an example of Bitcoin reaching stability and legitimacy at long last.
Still, Bitcoin has a long way to go in its battle with governments. Just yesterday, Dorsey and Square issued an open letter to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in protest of its proposed regulation of cryptocurrency, which would make it easier for the government to track the parties involved in crypto transactions — a regulation which stands at odds with the libertarian ideology attached to Crypto since its inception.
In its open letter, Square argues that the regulation would only encourage cryptocurrency users to use unregulated and dangerous backchannels to complete their transactions. In other words: the wave of crypto is unstoppable, and the government needs to get on board or people will circumvent them to find ways to mine and trade currencies.
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