The Latin American region now makes up for a 9.1% share of the global crypto value received in 2022 with remittances and high inflation the highest drivers of adoption.
Remittances drive ‘uneven, but swift’ crypto adoption in Latin America
Coinbase gains in-principle approval for Singapore crypto license
The country is a key institutional market for the exchange according to the CEO of Coinbase Singapore, who explained it’s also working with local industry groups to improve regulations.
Over 12,000 Brazil companies declare crypto holdings in record high
August figures released by Brazil’s tax authority revealed over 12,000 companies have cryptocurrency holdings, the largest amount ever recorded.
Taliban had a ‘massive chilling effect’ on Afghan crypto market: Report
Crypto value received in Afghanistan surged in the wake of the Taliban seizing power in August 2021, but crypto markets have flat lined under the regime.
SWIFT partners with Chainlink for cross-chain crypto transfer project
The project will connect SWIFT’s network to nearly every blockchain to allow traditional finance players access to digital and traditional assets on the one network.
Sports sponsorship is helping legitimize crypto in Australia — Coinjar exec
Luke Ryan of CoinJar says sporting partnerships “helps shift the image of crypto away from the idea that it’s only there as speculative mania.”
Emerging markets lead global adoption index: Chainalysis report
Lower-middle income countries hold a majority of the positions in the top 20 countries in terms of crypto adoption.
Canadia’s new opposition leader is a Bitcoiner
The new Conservative Party of Canada leader has previously advocated for financial freedom through crypto tokens, smart contracts and decentralized finance.
Number Of Crypto ATMs Installed Worldwide Reaches New Milestone
With crypto adoption advancing rapidly over the last year, the installation of new crypto ATMs worldwide has also followed this accelerated rate. The number of countries where crypto ATMs are available remains on the rise too. Over the course of 2021, a large number of ATMs were installed as more countries accepted them. This time around, the number of crypto ATMs in the world has hit a new high, indicating that adoption remains high.
39,000 Crypto ATMs Worldwide
The rapid growth of crypto worldwide is embodied in the number of ATMs around the globe. This month, the space celebrated a new milestone in regards to these machines, which have now surpassed a total of 39,000 ATMs installed worldwide.
Data from Coinatmradar shows that the number now sits at 39,015 ATMs installed across 78 countries. Most of the installations have happened in the last two years. Back on January 1st, 2020, the total number of crypto ATMs worldwide sat at 6,364 ATMs. Growing more than 513% in the time since then to its current level.
Market cap surpasses $1.1 trillion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap on TradingView.com
During this time, the number of ATM manufacturers has also grown more than 100%. It is now sitting above 15,000 manufacturers from the 2,000 that dominated the space back at the beginning of 2020. This has facilitated competition in this industry, and the cost of using crypto ATMs has plummeted as a result.
The United States Continues To Dominated
Most of the growth in the installation of ATMs has been happening in the United States. This is due to the acceptance rate of cryptocurrencies in the region and also the tendency to try out new tech. For this reason, more than 80% of all crypto ATMs installed worldwide have been in the United States.
It currently has a total of 34,301 ATMs out of the 39,015 ATMs that are currently live. It puts it at approximately 88% dominance in this industry. No other country comes close in this regard, and the United States has more crypto ATMs than all the other 77 countries combined.
Other countries which are seeing higher rates of installations include Canada, Spain, and El Salvador. The United Kingdom is interesting in this regard because while other countries are seeing the number of available crypto ATMs rise over the last two years, it has seen its numbers plummet. Currently, there are only about 22 ATMs in the UK.
There are currently 46 producers around the world with a total of 615 operations. As for businesses who bitcoin to cash and cash to bitcoin services, it currently sits at 324,114, with the US making up about half of this number.
Featured image from Gadgets 360, chart from TradingView.com
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75% of retailers eyeing crypto payments within 24 months: Deloitte
Improving customer experience, increasing the customer base and a hope their brand is perceived as “cutting edge” were the biggest reasons given for a desire to adopt crypto payments.
Taco tokens: Chipotle adds crypto payments via Flexa
Nearly 3,000 Chipotle restaurants across the U.S. will accept 98 cryptocurrencies as the Mexican-style fast food chain partners with Flexa to support crypto payments.
Developing countries love the Metaverse, rich nations not keen: WEF survey
Developing countries have more than double the amount of people positive that the Metaverse will impact their lives and they’d use it daily in comparison to developed countries.
Chile puts CBDC plans on hold until end of 2022 to undertake more analysis
Chile’s planned start to its digital peso rollout in early 2022 has been held back while its central bank conducts more analysis to inform a new report by the end of the year.
Aussie convenience store giant to accept crypto at 170 outlets
On The Run (OTR) will work with Crypto.com to implement its Pay Merchant product, with a Sydney payment systems provider rolling out new terminals to allow consumers to pay with crypto.
Why Crypto Is Following The 1990 Internet Adoption Curve
The adoption curve of crypto is believed to be in its early stages, and Wells Fargo data shows its close similarities with the early stages of internet adoption back in 1990, giving a glimpse of how crypto could become a part of everyone’s lives as it reaches the mainstream.
In a Brief History of The Internet, internetsociety.org notes that “The Internet has revolutionized the computer and communications world like nothing before.”
If crypto is the next revolution and many industries are already jumping in (finance, music, fashion, gaming, social media, etc), what will our world and portfolios look like once mass adoption happens?
Related Reading | Crypto Mass Adoption: Bringing Digital Currencies Into Everyday Life
90’s Internet Vs. Crypto Technology
A Wells Fargo Investment Institute report has compared how users started to embrace the internet in 1990 with the current cryptocurrency adoption rates.
The investment adviser suggests that both internet and crypto adoption started at a slow pace, but as the former “hit an inflection point, and then steeply accelerated”, the following years could show a similar spike for the crypto industry.
The report notes that in the cases of several technologies, “decades passed between the actual inventions and surging adoption rates.”
Only 1% of the world population and 14% of Americans were using the internet by 1995 even though it was invented in 1983. The experts think these numbers look familiar to the current rates of cryptocurrencies adoption.
Citing Crypto.com, collected data reveals that by 2021 almost 3% of the world’s population had become crypto users (221 million in June 2021). The most impressive part is how fast the industry got to that percentage, given that only four months before that time the number of users was half in size, around 100 million.
A common factor among how users approach new technologies in their early stages is the period of time many need to “figure out what the technology is, what it can do, and how it can benefit them.” In this matter, data shows that in 2021 crypto newcomers believed the space is still in its early adoption stage, “as they find the technology daunting and use cases unclear.”
Data represented in the following charts hints that the cryptocurrency adoption rates could be taking a similar road to “other earlier advanced technologies, particularly the internet.” Meaning that crypto could soon enter “an inflection point of hyper-adoption” like these other technologies, in which cases the rising path has not looked back.
“For the internet, that point was the mid-to-late 1990s. After a slow start in the early 1990s, internet use surged from 77 million in 1996 to 412 million in 2000. By 2010, worldwide internet use had grown to 1.98 billion, and today it sits at 4.9 billion.”
Shared by Wells Fargo
The following chart closely compares the growth of internet adoption from 1993 to nowadays and the rise in crypto users since 2014. Experts believe that “cryptocurrency use today may even be a little ahead of the mid-to-late 1990s internet,” showing no doubt of the rising adoption that could “soon hit a hyper-inflection point.”
“It often takes many years for consumers to widely adopt new advanced technologies.”
Shared by Wells Fargo
Experts at Wells Fargo foresee that “cryptocurrencies eventually will follow an accelerated adoption path similar to recent digital inventions,” meaning wifi, smartphones, and so forth. All innovations that are now part of most people’s daily lives.
Moving Into Early Majority
NewsBTC had previously explained that an adoption curve portrays the cumulative rate at which people adopt and react to a product and technology over time.
Its original model, Everett Rogers’s diffusion of innovations, shows five segments of an adoption curve’s life cycle: Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Later Majority, and Laggards.
As the adoption of this new technology moves into the early majority –and mass adoption–, more investors are likely to lose the fear of the crypto industry, and with increasing demand value is believed to spike.
Moreover, an important factor that may slow down the path toward adoption is the lack of a clear regulatory framework for the industry, which drives investors and consumers away. But as governments cannot look away for much longer, clarity is expected to come soon enough and also drive an increase in adoption.
Related Reading | Goldman Sachs: Mainstream Adoption Won’t Boost Bitcoin Price
Crypto total market cap at $1.9 trillion in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Visa survey shows that 24% of SMBs plan to accept crypto payments
Crypto holders want to use their assets to shop and stores around the globe are starting to take heed.
Visa Survey Shows Crypto Payments Could Boom In 2022
The payment company giant Visa Inc just surveyed 2,250 small businesses from nine countries to understand if merchants are planning to adopt crypto to receive payments. Results show that over 25% of them want to start doing so this year.
Reuters reported that Visa expects many retail businesses to join the crypto boom starting this year. The payment company has been long involved in the cryptocurrency industry and is interested in its mainstream acceptance as an opportunity to grow its own line of products and services.
Visa currently offers cryptocurrency-linked cards for consumers to make purchases using digital currencies. However, this service doesn’t mean stores directly accept digital assets as payments. The user’s holdings directly turn into a fiat currency “instantly, behind the scenes” as they pay.
Even though Visa consumers are reportedly adopting crypto with over $3.5 billion in crypto-linked digital transactions in 2021, merchants have been skeptical about directly receiving it as payment so far.
Visa’s Crypto Survey Results
Visa surveyed small businesses from the United States, Brazil, Singapore, Canada, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Germany, and Ireland.
Reportedly, small businesses from North America were the least enthusiastic about starting to accept cryptocurrencies as a form of payment. 19% of small businesses from the U.S. and only 8% from Canada want to offer digital currencies as a form of payment this year.
However, over 30% of small retailers from the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Brazil –where the crypto industry is booming– intend to allow users to pay using crypto in 2022.
Furthermore, around three-quarters of the surveyed retailers thought that accepting crypto as a payment option would be “fundamental” for their businesses to grow.
Related Reading | Visa Creates Service To Advise Financial Institutions On Cryptocurrencies
BitPay Chips In
Similarly, CEO of crypto payments platform BitPay Stephen Pair just made comments that contribute to the 2022’s forecast on digital currencies acceptance.
BitPay company provides cryptocurrency payment processing services for retailers and reportedly has seen a growing number of businesses using their services to directly receive digital currencies as payment.
Pair thinks that “There could be an inflection point in 2022″ for the common use of digital coins “where it starts to become a little unusual for you to not have some”. He commented the following:
“I think in 2022, you’ll see many more people — that next wave of people — getting interested in crypto both from an investment perspective and a ‘let’s try it for a payment’ [perspective]…There’s going to be many more places with that service — that you’ll be able to spend crypto and do it in an in-person setting, which may make people more comfortable trying it out than perhaps if it’s on a website where they’re not sure if they’re doing it right or wrong.”
Related Reading | FinTech Behind Cardano’s First Stablecoin Launches Bank Accounts And Visa Debit Cards
Crypto total market cap at $2.0 trillion in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
How Crypto Empowered Porn Creators In 2021: Less Cant More Freedom
The crypto industry saw the opportunity of a lifetime this year when OnlyFans, a platform known mostly for its adult content, announced it would ban sexually explicit content. The crypto and porn industry together represents a very profitable merge that has just started to happen.
The world of payment methods has a history of hypocrisy, control, and morals, and it tends to not support anything related to sex work.
Reportedly, earlier in the year OnlyFans had decided to shut down all sexually explicit content because of pressure from banks and payment processors. There was a huge backlash and the ban stopped days after its announcement, alleging that the platform had “secured assurances necessary” from the banks.
The platform’s founder and chief executive told Time that banks were refusing to process adult content-related payments.
“OnlyFans stands for inclusion”, they said, but they had been trying to distance themselves from the porn industry, interested in launching a streaming service –which doesn’t allow adult content.
Payment methods have been a burden for porn creators worldwide for years. Their gains are often subject to frozen funds, huge losses, and since there’s not much protection and support offered for sex workers, they need to be extra careful to not become subject to scams and other dangers.
So anonymity and safe digital wallets go really well with this industry. Naturally, many creators and producers have started to see an answer in crypto.
Crypto’s Not The Only One With A Bad Reputation
Cristobal Medoza producer and co-creator of a top Argentinian porn channel called ‘My Bad Reputation’ was one of many to adopt crypto in order to find financial stability and more opportunities. He gave us inside comments on his personal experience, allowing us to take a peek at the industry people love to consume from but try not to support.
New platforms are surging that connect the porn and crypto industry. A great niche for all parties if successful –it needs to be simple, safe, and well-executed–.
It’s a demystification that goes both ways: the amount of porn consumers is very high. If adult content platforms are related to crypto, this might become a blasting cap of mainstream adoption.
Medonza explained that the major porn platforms have already adopted crypto (paying in Bitcoin and USDT), which contrasts with other payment services offered that are very restrictive and using them comes with too many complications and downsides.
However, many smaller adult content platforms don’t use crypto yet, and that becomes a major problem that comes with huge fees to convert the creators’ money to digital assets.
Mendoza added that porn creators are often affected by the banks, which he claims have closed the accounts of many and frozen their funds when finding out their income is related to adult content.
He commented on the OnlyFans sketchy days of adult content baning, alleging that a large of new pornography platforms started to appear, trying to take that big chunk of a very profitable market.
There’s always going to be someone that will take a stake at that market because it generates huge gains. At the end, OnlyFans took a step back because they knew they would loose too much money and others would quickly fill into their role.
Mendoza stated that his adult content channel takes its payments through Binance, and it has become a great option since “it doesn’t question where the incomes come from, there are no types or morality issues with how we make the money,” plus they can easily exchange it.
Further than using crypto as a better payment method, it has also allowed him and his co-creator to make a few investments through trading and hodling.
There’s many people from the industry that still don’t know how to use crypto as a tool for payments and administration.
I think [they] would greatly benefit from crypto … comissions are low, there’s full control over one’s own income.
He mentioned there are many new projects that claim to link the adult content industry with crypto but some are scams, and creators need to be wary and start to educate themselves about cyber security.
Crypto total market cap at $2,1 trillion in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
BlockFi Co-Founder Sees Huge Growth And FOMO For Crypto In 2022
Co-founder of BlockFi and senior vice president of operations, Flori Marquez, shared the company’s insight on collected customers’ data and shed some light on the crypto industry’s growth as they have seen “huge moves” of Americans interested in it, suggesting a burgeoning adoption.
During an interview with Yahoo Finance, Flori Marquez shared some interesting numbers. In the year over year Bitcoin returned 112%, and compared to gold and S&P respectively, she said, “that’s a negative 4% and 24%.”
So, year over year, it has been volatile in the last 30 days. But it’s still a great investment for people who were participating a year ago.
Marquez claims this year was big for crypto in terms of mainstream consumer demand, which took BlockFi to research amongst customers’ data to try understand their sentiment on Bitcoin at the moment.
we’ve seen that 1 in 10 people plan to gift crypto this year. And also, about 2/3 of Americans prefer to talk about crypto versus if you think about five years ago, only 1% of people had ever traded crypto, and 50% of Americans had never heard of crypto five years ago.
BlockFi has around 75,000 clients using their Visa Signature Credit Card which offers rewards in Bitcoin, “And that’s absolutely huge because most fintech companies look to see about 10,000 credit cards in their first year” Marquez added and further suggested that Americans are highly interested in earning “different types of awards”, but not necessarily looking forward to earn cash back.
BlockFi’s co-founder claims that 2/3 of their clients “actually spend less with cash back” since starting to use their Bitcoin-rewards cards because they are “more into crypto”. Their clients nowadays show a long-term ‘hodlers’ way of thinking, and see BTC as an asset that could generate them an important yearly return that cash cannot offer.
when they receive a Bitcoin reward, they’re not selling that for cash. So the upside isn’t necessarily the $140 that you’re receiving in Bitcoin today. The upside is what could that Bitcoin be worth a year from now.
A Chainalysis research shows that, by October 2021, the goblal crypto adoption had grown over 2300% since Q3 2019 and over 881% in the last year as many countries face devaluations and citizens all over the world want to protect their savings, and there is also a large boost coming from institutional investment. The total market cap of crypto reached $3 trillion in 2021 and is currently at $2,2 trillion.
Crypto total market cap at $2,2 trillion in the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com
Related Reading | Has The NFT Bubble Popped? Prices Down 65% While Ecologists Sharpen Knives
BlockFi Sees The Growth Of Crypto Driven By FOMO
During 2022, Marquez expects to see more first timers American customers enter the crypto space as she thinks that “a huge driver is going to be FOMO”, meaning that the industry is getting so popular –and cash is looking less useful– that people do not want to miss out on the possible returns.
Reading | FOMO Beware: Spot Bitcoin Buying Volume Remains Low, Despite New ATH
For Marquez, this Holiday season could incentivize the FOMO as many are talking about their 2021 investments and how they worked out. “I do think that crypto has become a bit more digestible for the average consumer than it was five years ago”, she claims.
Furthermore, Marquez thinks that crypto will keep seeing new talent come in, people who have changed paths trying to find a “right fit” for the long-term during the pandemic. She claimed there will be more “shifting from other more traditional industries into crypto and the fintech sector”, and thinks that’s a new opportunity to bring in historically excluded demographics.
As many others do, Marquez hopes to see some regulatory clarity for crypto next year, and commented that “BlockFi is a huge believer in partnership with regulators” to achieve building a bridge that connects traditional finance with crypto. She suggested clarity would boost the mainstream adoption because users will think the space is safer if regulators are in it.
Confirmed: AMC Now Accepts Bitcoin, Ethereum, Two Other Cryptos, Dogecoin To Follow
AMC has now officially become the first theater chain to accept Bitcoin, Ethereum, and cryptocurrency payments on its platform. This has been a long time coming after CEO Adam Aron had first announced the entertainment giant’s plans to accept crypto payments by the end of the year. The announcement had said that it would accept crypto payments online for both movie tickets and concessions.
Crypto Payments On AMC Are Official
Everything on AMC’s end looks to have worked right on schedule as the annulment three months ago had stated that the company would begin accepting crypto payments in the fourth quarter of the year. Aron took to Twitter to announce the exciting news that AMC had in fact begun receiving payments in four cryptocurrencies. These included Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin.
Big newsflash! As promised, many new ways NOW to pay online at AMC. We proudly now accept: drumroll, please… Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin. Also Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal. Incredibly, they already account for 14% of our total online transactions! Dogecoin next. pic.twitter.com/a7pqYBm7HB
— Adam Aron (@CEOAdam) November 12, 2021
Related Reading | SpaceX Dogecoin-Funded DOGE-1 Mission Set To Launch In Q1 2022
At first, Bitcoin was the only crypto that was to be accepted by the change but further reviews had seen the theater chain add more options due to popular demand. One of the reasons being bitcoin carried high transaction fees and would not be the most ideal option for carrying out small transactions. Not long after the bitcoin announcement, CEO Adam Aron had announced that Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin would be joining the lineup.
Doge begins another recovery trend | Source: DOGEUSD on TradingView.com
Other additions came later after Aron had carried out a poll on Twitter. In the poll, he asked the community if they would like to see the popular meme coin Dogecoin accepted and the majority had voted yes. So AMC had incorporated Dogecoin payments for gift cards and plans to introduce Doge payments for movie tickets and concessions.
When Are Dogecoin And Shiba Inu Payments Coming?
In the announcement tweet, Aron had said that Dogecoin payments were coming. There was no definite timeline given for this but with four cryptocurrencies already in operation, speculations are it would not be too far in the future. However, Aron had said nothing about its latest addition to its crypto lineup; Shiba Inu.
Related Reading | AMC Theatres Says Customers Will Soon Be Able To Pay With Shiba Inu
The CEO had carried out another poll on Twitter, but this time for Dogecoin’s rival Shiba Inu. Once again, the majority had voted in favor of adding the meme coin as a payment method and Aron had confirmed in an earnings call that it would be implementing Shiba Inu payments in the future. The SHIB community inquired about when they should expect to be able to pay with their coins, but there has been no update from AMC regarding the matter.
Google Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal were also introduced alongside cryptocurrency payments.
Featured image from Bloomberg, chart from TradingView.com
