Cryptocurrency isn’t just the domain of technology whizzes anymore.
With so much money being printed as a result of COVID-19 financial relief, corporations and institutions are worried about inflation.
Searching for safe stores of value to hedge against inflation, they’ve landed on bitcoin.
Bitcoin is digital money that doesn’t exist in any physical form (as in bills or coins) and is not owned by banks or governments. Because there are a finite number of bitcoin that will ever exist (21 million to be precise), it will retain its value in the long-run.
Institutions are now feeling more confident about bitcoin and are pouring money into it.
Despite initial skepticism around the legitimacy of bitcoin, it is the best performing asset of the decade. Its value has grown 200% per year over the last 10 years.
Established business intelligence firm leading corporations in the accumulation of bitcoin
Michael Saylor, the founder and CEO of MicroStrategy, a leading business intelligence firm, has said multiple times that he believes bitcoin is the simplest way to protect the value that MicroStrategy has created for shareholders.
Saylor and MicroStrategy announced that as of April 2021, they had accumulated a total of 91,579 bitcoin, which they spent $2.226-billion to acquire. That bitcoin is now worth $5.3 billion, with MicroStrategy essentially capturing a $3-billion increase in value through their bitcoin investment.
Since then, we’ve seen a flurry of macro traders, corporations and institutions begin to invest in bitcoin.
Among the established names bringing bitcoin into the mainstream are Paypal, which launched the capability of buying and selling bitcoin on its platform. NBA team the Sacramento Kings have offered bitcoin salary options to all its players. And notably, Tesla made headlines when they purchased $1.5-billion worth of bitcoin and announced they would now accept bitcoin as a form of payment.
Citibank has speculated that bitcoin could become the currency of choice for global trade, and Deutsche Bank says that bitcoin’s market cap of $1 trillion makes it too important to ignore.
Institutions and corporations are holding, not selling bitcoin
Institutions aren’t just looking to bitcoin as a short-term strategy.
Some businesses, such as MicroStrategy, have said that they don’t intend to ever sell bitcoin. They see it as the world’s reserve asset and are playing an accumulation game.
It won’t be surprising if we continue to see more businesses and institutions buying bitcoin this year and beyond to protect themselves against inflation.
Fear of inflation is what ultimately drives capital flows and why we’re seeing more money pouring into bitcoin.
As more and more large institutions begin to provide their customers with access to bitcoin and buy it for themselves, it reduces the availability of bitcoin and increases the price for retail investors.
The easy way to buy bitcoin in Canada
Although major institutions are investing millions or billions of dollars into bitcoin, it is still accessible to regular investors.
Canadian cryptocurrency brokerage Netcoins makes it easy for anyone to buy as little as $10 in bitcoin using its secure, user-friendly platform.
All Netcoins users need to do is simply deposit Canadian dollars into their Netcoins account to buy bitcoin (or any other cryptocurrency of their choice). They can deposit via e-transfer, online billing or bank wire for zero fees.
Even if you aren’t quite ready to buy or sell yet, Netcoins has some features that allow you to either watch the price closely or set limit orders, whereby a trade is executed only when certain parameters are met (including buy or sell trades at user-defined price points).
These features, alongside the standard instant trading Netcoins offers, allows users to start investing in cryptocurrencies, easily and quickly within a safe environment. Owned by BIGG Digital Assets, Netcoins offers its users and investors more transparency into its finances and operations.
To learn more and to get started buying bitcoin easily, visit netcoins.ca.
