Bitcoin seems to be inching to global adoption as the richest man in the world, Elon Musk edited his Twitter bio and endorsed Bitcoin. Musk’s endorsement led to the sudden rise in the price of Bitcoin to $37k, gaining 19% in few hours.
However, as of the time of writing this report, the digital currency has lost 2.5%, confirming the widespread speculation of Bitcoin as a very volatile asset. Hayner also expressed optimism about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in terms of utility, saying he expected Bitcoin and other tokens to surge higher than ever this year. He also sees more utility in other stablecoins, Oracles, NFT, and decentralized loans.
Haynes sees Bitcoin’s current movement as “the fourth wave.”
Meanwhile, Marshall Hayner, a trader, and analyst suggested that Bitcoin has just completed its “Fourth Wave” of adoption. Hayner said that having hit its record level late last year, many institutional investors have included cryptocurrencies in their balance sheet. Hence, a reason for the heavy rise in the price till date.
Haynes also noted that as the oldest and most liquid cryptocurrency, Bitcoin’s wide acceptance is attracting it to financial institutions and fund managers who now see the asset as an inflation hedge. Thus, many investors have now been divesting from the traditional inflation hedge and gold haven such as gold and USD to cryptocurrencies.
The Chief Executive Officer terms the development in the crypto market as Wave Four of crypto adoption. He posited that the first wave was the exuberance of investors. The second was speculation, while the third was utility. Now, the acceptance by the majority of powerful and influential people is the “fourth wave.”
According to Hayner, in addition to institutional investors throwing their weight behind cryptocurrencies, national crypto banks have now been gaining more accordance and familiarity with Bitcoin. In July 2020, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency granted national banks the license to keep cryptocurrencies.
How Musk’s tweet sent Dogecoin’s prices higher
In December last year, Elon Musk, the Tesla Chief Executive Officer, made some funny tweets on Bitcoin and his favorite Dogecoin by just tweeting “One Word: Doge.” In few hours, Dogecoin jumped by 20% and became one of the hottest topics on Twitter.
Even, Musk updated his Twitter bio to include his former position as the Dogecoin CEO. The brief and funny tweet came in December after Bitcoin climbed to its record level of $20K, its 2017 high. It then hit $24K before halting its movement in the consolidation zone. Since then, digital currency has been becoming more popular in the financial and investment world.
Earlier in July last year, Musk made a similar post about Dogecoin, with a brief tweet that the asset is bound to be integrated into the financial system. Dogecoin jumped by 15% following the tweet. Last year witnessed worldwide acceptance and adoption of Bitcoin as a force to reckon with in the present financial world. Big techs such as Paypal, Galaxy Digital, Ruffer, and more have given their nod to the crypto market. MicroStrategy holds the largest share of Bitcoin, worth 70,780 BTC.
