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Bitcoin jumps on BNY, Mastercard support

More corporate support offers cryptocurrency further legitimacy
February 11, 2021

 

  • America's oldest bank to start financing cryptos
  • Institutional-level support grows with MasterCard also weighing in

The corporate support just keeps on coming: America’s oldest bank – BNY Mellon – will start financing bitcoin and other cryptos. It’s a big deal since BNY is the first big national custodial bank to offer custody services for crypto assets. You have to assume this is not for your average checking account but for big institutional-level financing. It comes hot off the heels of Tesla’s $1.5bn Bitcoin investment of course. Yet more ‘mainstreaming’ and corporate support. The question is: the more suits take over this space, what happens to regulation? More corporate adoption = more regulatory oversight. Whilst it was fine to let Bitcoin be when it was used for money laundering and drug running, it’s another story when the likes of BNY are offering custodial services.

MasterCard also announced today that it will start supporting some cryptocurrencies this year. This follow’s PayPal’s big announcement last year which stoked the bull market in the fourth quarter. At the time of the PayPal report I wrote a lengthy feature on why this would be an important step forward for Bitcoin as it demonstrates building corporate support. MasterCard only cements this view and the dam has burst in terms of institutional interest and demand.

Prices rallied on the twin announcements with spot prices taking out a high at $48,302 on our platform, with futures topping out at $49,030 as of send time. $50k looks on.

 

 

Neil Wilson is chief markets analyst at Markets.com