Crypto News RoundUp: Credit Cards Catching onto Crypto While Banks Are Losing Ground, The NBA Becomes a Leader in Adoption

April 9, 2021

Welcome to your weekly news roundup. As is the case every week, there’s a lot of exciting news going on in crypto. Yes, we could be talking about the small dump happening to altcoins this week, but the fundamental shift happening in the financial space related to cryptocurrency is much more exciting.

Banks and ballers are leading the way. Here’s everything you need to know!

 

Credit Card Companies Are Giving out Crypto Rewards Instead of Air Miles

Gemini, BlockFi, Fold, and Crypto.com. These are likely just some of the names that will be at the front of the line when the next generation of credit cards takes Bitcoin adoption to the next level. How so?

Each of these crypto companies is able to offer 8% or more in annual credit card rewards paid out in Bitcoin instead of cashback or Air Miles.

Will Reeves, the CEO of Fold, says that he expects crypto rewards cards to make up 10% of all credit card rewards in the not-too-distant future.

While an annual reward rate of 8% is highly dependent on the future growth of the Bitcoin price, it’s obvious that adoption will accelerate as traditional credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard carry out plans of their own to stay competitive while also using the blockchain.

 

Investors HODLing Ethereum Outside of Exchanges in Record Numbers

Blockchain analytics firm GlassNode published a chart on Twitter this week showing that the amount of Ethereum tokens sitting on crypto exchanges hasn’t been this low in more than 20 months.

According to the chart, more than 14.6 million Ethereum tokens are on exchanges at the moment. That sounds like a big number. However, it’s not if you consider that 115.3 million tokens are currently in circulation. That means only 12.66% of all of the Ethereum tokens that currently exist are stored in centralized wallets.

Crypto investors are clearly protecting their private keys. That’s always a good thing.

 

Cryptocurrencies Are Now Worth More Than the American Banking System

All cryptocurrencies combined are now worth more than $2.5 trillion Canadian. That’s more than all of the American banks featured on the S&P Composite 1500 Banking Index.

While Bitcoin is up in price more than 500% over the last six months, the overall market capitalization of cryptocurrencies is actually being driven by altcoins lately.

XRP is up over 88% over the last seven days while Binance Coin is up 44%. Of the altcoins currently in the top 10, six of them are up more than 20% in just the last seven days.

Increased numbers of investors taking Ethereum tokens off of exchanges is just one reason for that. The nonfungible token boom is another.

Either way it looks like the future is upon us. Banks are officially losing ground.

 

NBA’s Sacramento Kings Offering Bitcoin Salary Option to Staff and Players

Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadivè participated in a session with fans on the social media app Clubhouse earlier this week and confirmed that he will give all Kings employees and players the option to be paid their salary in Bitcoin. It would be the first time in the history of major North American sports leagues that an entire team has that option.

The Kings organization is showing its willingness to stay on the cutting-edge of technology time and time again. The team already uses the blockchain to store data related to an in-game rewards app where fans can earn points towards merchandise and tickets for predicting what will happen next on the court. The club also uses the blockchain to verify the authenticity of sports memorabilia sold through the Kings charitable foundation.

 

NBA Owner Mark Cuban Says Ethereum Is Way Undervalued

Appearing on Laura Shin’s podcast Unchained on Tuesday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban listed many reasons he thinks Ethereum is undervalued and why it has more utility than Bitcoin going forward.

Cuban says the fact that NFTs have value not only in the world of collectibles but also within insurance, accounting, and the legal industry gives Ethereum lots of room to grow.

He argues that it’s not just a store of value like Bitcoin and that when the 2.0 upgrade happens and smart contract fees become significantly cheaper, it’ll be a total game-changer.

Cuban’s sentiment is a far cry from a few years ago when he said that he would rather invest in bananas than Bitcoin.

 

PayPal Founder Calls Bitcoin a ’Chinese Financial Weapon’ at a Roundtable Discussion

Billionaire and PayPal founder, Peter Theil, says he is pro-crypto and a Bitcoin maximalist, but that “…Bitcoin should also be thought of as a financial weapon against the U.S.”, according to a tweet posted by the Richard Nixon Foundation.

Theil has always been known for his conservative point of view. His perspective is based on the fact that China as a whole does have a large number of investors in cryptocurrency. Whether it’s the Chinese government trying to gain financial power or Chinese citizens trying to keep wealth away from their government however is debatable.

Form your own opinion on that one.

That’s the news for this week’s round-up. Remember to sign up for a free account at Netcoins if you’re looking to buy cryptocurrency from a Canadian crypto exchange.

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