The Crypto Roundup: 11 February 2021

Latest price and news from the crypto space

Latest price from our hand picked list of digital assets

Mastercard is reportedly planning on giving merchants the option of receiving payments in cryptocurrency later this year through a new functionality that would see its customers’ digital currency payments settled in crypto at participating merchants.

Strategists at JPMorgan Chase led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou revealed they believe Tesla’s move to buy $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin is too bold for other companies to emulate because of the cryptocurrency’s volatility.

Virginia-based Blue Ridge Bank is reportedly letting customers buy bitcoin at 19 of its ATMs with an 8% fee on transactions. The bank’s move comes after the number of bitcoin ATMs surged last year to over 15,000 machines throughout the world.

Sponsored: BitMarket Network Client is a new open-source multi-currency local crypto wallet with a user-friendly interface. You can perform fast transactions without registering and transferring keys to third-party servers.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

Join CryptoCompare's Webinar with Kraken, Coinbase, Gemini, Bitstamp, and The Block
Mastercard to Let Merchants Accept Cryptocurrency Payments
Tesla’s Bitcoin Bet Too Bold For Other Companies to Emulate, JPMorgan Says
Blue Ridge Bank Starts Letting Customers Buy Bitcoin at ATMs
Sponsored: BitMarket Network Client - Benefits of a Multi-Currency Crypto Wallet

Join CryptoCompare's Webinar with Kraken, Coinbase, Gemini, Bitstamp, and The Block

With hundreds of digital asset exchanges, how do we determine which venues can be trusted? CryptoCompare's proprietary Exchange Benchmark sets the industry standard in assessing exchanges and we're now releasing the 2021 edition.

Register now and join us on 16 February at 9 AM PST/ 12 PM EST / 5 PM GMT when we reveal our latest digital asset exchange rankings and discuss what makes a top-tier exchange with some of the biggest trading venues.

Moderated by:

Larry Cermak - Director of Research, The Block

Panelists:

Dave Abner - Global Head of Business Development, Gemini
Vishal Gupta - Head of Exchange, Coinbase
Dan Held - Head of Growth, Kraken
Chris Aruliah - Head of Business Development, Bitstamp

Mastercard to Let Merchants Accept Cryptocurrency Payments

The company has not revealed which cryptocurrencies it plans on supporting, nor where it plans to launch the new functionality. Mastercard has previously been supporting crypto transactions through crypto card partners like Uphold and Wirex, but the funds were converted to fiat before reaching the merchant.

Mastercard will evaluate potential cryptocurrencies to include using its “Principles for Blockchain Partnerships” framework, which was released after the payments giant left Libra. It emphasizes stability, consumer protection, and regulatory compliance.

In a blog post, Mastercard Executive Vice President for Blockchain and Digital Asset Products Raj Dhamodharan hinted stablecoins may be first in line, adding:

“Our philosophy on cryptocurrencies is straightforward: It’s about choice. Mastercard isn’t here to recommend you start using cryptocurrencies. But we are here to enable customers, merchants and businesses to move digital value.”

The company has been laying the groundwork for a crypto economy over the last few years with patents revolving around the space.

Tesla’s Bitcoin Bet Too Bold For Other Companies to Emulate, JPMorgan Says

They wrote that the main issue “with the idea that mainstream corporate treasurers will follow the example of Tesla is the volatility of Bitcoin.” Corporate treasury portfolios are usually filled with bank deposits, short-dated bonds, and money market funds, meaning that annualized volatility hovers around 1%

Allocating even 1% of their treasuries to BTC would “cause a big increase in the volatility of the overall portfolio,” the strategists wrote, predicting a portfolio with such an allocation could see its volatility rise to 8%.

The strategists pointed out that “irrespective of how many corporates follow Tesla’s example, there is no doubt” its announcement “changed abruptly the near-term trajectory for Bitcoin by bolstering inflows and by helping Bitcoin break out above $40k.”

Blue Ridge Bank Starts Letting Customers Buy Bitcoin at ATMs

The bank joins a small list of banks serving the cryptocurrency community, which includes the New York-based Quontic Bank, which launched a bitcoin rewards debit card this year. Blue Ridge has $2.8 billion in assets and its share price surged shortly after announcing the move.

The company’s stock reacted to the news with an upward trend that saw the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) halt trading of the shares because of the volatility.

Speaking to CoinDesk the bank’s CEO Brian Plum revealed that they see growing interest in cryptocurrencies, and that it wasn’t necessary to substitute machines to add the functionality. Blue Ridge’s ATMs cap bitcoin purchases at $5,000 per day, and customers have to buy with a bank-issued debit card in a bid to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

BitMarket Network Client - Benefits of a Multi-Currency Crypto Wallet

BitMarket Network Client is a new open-source multicurrency local crypto wallet with a user-friendly interface. You can perform fast transactions without registering and transferring keys to third-party servers.

Bitcoin has demonstrated tremendous growth over the last few months. On February 96, its price hit a new all-time high above $48,000 and over the last 12 months its up by over 300%.

BitMarket Network Client is a client application that meets all these requirements. It is ideal for fast currency transactions, providing anonymity and data security.

BitMarket Network Client Benefits are the following:

Important data is stored exclusively on your device.
Open-source. This means that the developers will not be able to influence the operation of the wallet in their interests, as changes in the code will be visible to third-party developers.
Intuitive user interface. Comfortable U1 / UX
Quick access anywhere. Wherever you are, you have access to your cryptoassets and can move them 24/7.
Install the client on any device. BitMarket Network Client is a cross-platform application. At this stage, it can only be installed on Win / Mac OS X / Linux, but the developers will add compatibility with iOS and Android soon.
All your assets in one place. You are able to store different currencies in a multicurrency wallet with quick synchronization between them, and can also see the total value of all assets in fiat. At the moment, this is in development, but the storage of BTC and LTC is already available.
Anonymity and data protection. Registration is not required to work with the application. Login is performed using a password.

The project's team is looking for crypto market enthusiasts for cooperation: developers, testers, and users who will help improve user qualities and accelerate product development. It is very important to get qualified feedback at the development stage.