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Feb 15 (Reuters) – Bitcoin, the world’s first and most famous cryptocurrency, has exploded to record highs as it gains legitimacy as an asset.
Much of those gains have been driven by the interest of large American institutions.
Here are some steps from big companies, big investors, banks, and payment processors that have brought Bitcoin closer to the mainstream in recent months:
INVESTMENT
May 2020:
* Fund manager Paul Tudor Jones defends bitcoin as a store of value.
August 2020:
* The business software company led by Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy, announces the purchase of 21,454 bitcoins for 250 million dollars, the first of several investments in the cryptocurrency.
November 2020:
* Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller and BlackRock head of fixed income Rick Rieder make positive public comments about bitcoin as an alternative to gold.
January 2021:
* Investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co says that Bitcoin could hit $ 146,000 if it becomes an established safe haven.
* Weekly flows to crypto funds and products hit a record $ 1.3 billion and total investment scales a new peak of $ 34.4 billion, according to asset manager CoinShares.
February 2021:
* Automaker Tesla Inc announces that it bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoin and says it will soon accept the cryptocurrency as payment for its vehicles.
* Bitcoin owners now include 169-year-old insurer MassMutual, asset manager Galaxy Digital Holdings, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s payments firm, Square, Canadian software company Snapper, and Marathon coin miners and Argo.
ACCEPTANCE
July 2020:
* The US banking regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, says that national banks and federal savings associations can provide custody services for cryptocurrencies.
October 2020:
* The payment processor PayPal allows customers to keep bitcoins in their digital wallets and use it to buy from the 26 million merchants in its network
February 2021:
* Mastercard discloses plans to support cryptocurrency payments on its network.
* BNY Mellon announces a new unit aimed at helping clients trade and own cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.
* Purpose Investments, an asset manager based in Toronto, launches the world’s first bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
* The parent company of Japan’s largest online brokerage, SBI, says it plans a crypto joint venture with foreign financial firms.
Reporting by Tom Westbrook Edited by Vidya Ranganathan and Sriraj Kalluvila
