Thursday Thoughts: Mastercard, Twitter, Amazon, and Celo

Good morning. Big companies are jumping into the Bitcoin and cryptocurrency train. Twitter is now considering to buy Bitcoin, which is not surprising. Elsewhere, Mastercard may soon allow payments settled in cryptocurrencies.

Welcome to Thursday Thoughts, part of our new series: BitPinas Daily. We will look at the price of Bitcoin, Ethereum and the major cryptocurrencies. Crypto is global, but sometimes news that matters happens while we sleep. So we bring to you what’s happening in our space here and abroad.   

Market Price as of February 11, 2021:

Bitcoin closed February 10, 2021, at $44,849 per BTC. We’re up 19% in the last 7 days and up 53% since the year began. This is 6% below the previous all-time high of $48,025 which was hit on Feb 9. 2021.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization stands today at $829,865,986,934 which is 59% of the entire cryptocurrency market. The entire crypto market, by the way, now has a market cap of $1,388,766,397,360 (-2.3%).

On the table above, there’s the cryptocurrency SLP. If you wonder what that is, check out this article: Playing Axie Infinity vs Minimum Basic Salary in the Philippines.

Amazon

Amazon to Launch Digital Currency Project in Mexico

A series of job postings revealed that Amazon is launching this digital currency project in Mexico. The job description reads:

“This product will enable customers to convert their cash in to digital currency using which customers can enjoy online services including shopping for goods and/or services like Prime Video,”

Ethereum

Over 3 Million ETH Now Staked on Ethereum 2.0 Contract

Two months ago, the Ethereum 2.0 contract only had 1 million ETH, which is of course still a lot. As part of its transition to proof-of-stake, anyone who staked their ETH are entitled to up to 23% rewards, but you cant’ withdraw your ETH until Phase 1.5 of ETH 2.0 goes live in 2022.

Mastercard

Mastercard to Let Merchants Accept Crypto Payments This 2021

Mastercard, like Visa, was previously a crypto skeptic. But look at them now. According to a source of Coindesk, Mastercard customers’ digital currency payments could be settled in crypto at participating merchants. Of course Mastercard kind of supported crypto transactions before but only for payment, not for settlements. 

Twitter

Twitter Might Purchase Bitcoin, Says CFO

The company is looking at paying employees in Bitcoin.

Central Banks

Christine Lagarde Says It’s Unlikely for Central Banks to Hold Bitcoin

European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde is not changing her mind about Bitcoin being highly speculative. In a press conference call, she said she doesn’t consider Bitcoin as a real currency, and that central banks won’t be holding it as a reserve currency soon. “It’s very unlikely — I would say it’s out of the question,” she said. 

By the way, should Central Banks hold Bitcoin. Blockchain Lawyer Rafael Padilla has a different take on this which you can read here: Counterweight: The Case for Bitcoin as Central Bank Reserve Asset by Atty. Rafael Padilla

Celo

cLabs Raises Fresh $20 Million Funding Following Trial of Valora App in the Philippines

According to Katie Haun, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, it saw the opportunity in Celo two years ago for a “full stack” global payments platform that anyone could use to send, receive, and store money. “Celo can dramatically reduce fees and fraud while also making payments instantaneous and global,” Katie said in a statement.

By the way, CELO and cUSD, which are the tokens on Valora, are available on local virtual currency exchanges BloomX and CoexStar: How to Buy and Sell Celo and cUSD on Local Exchanges in the Philippines

What else is happening

• Some Ethereum miners are turning to gaming laptops as GPU supplies run dry
• Polygon (fka Matic) releases layer 2 software development kit for ETH
• How traditional exchanges are boosting crypto adoption

This article is published on Thursday Thoughts: Mastercard, Twitter, Amazon, and Celo