Bitcoin users in the US can now make payments on food chain restaurants using Bitcoin. Some of these restaurants include Muscle Maker Grill and Buppa Gump Shrimp.

Every day is recording an increasing number of institutions accepting Bitcoin. This is increasing the mass adoption of these crypto assets, and more people are investing in crypto. Bitcoin is leading the chart with it having the most liquidity, given that it can be accepted as a payment method on different platforms.

Using BTC to pay for Food

One of the major food companies in the US to announce they will start accepting Bitcoin payments is Landry's Inc. This firm deals in dining, hospitality, and entertainment and runs other small franchises. Tilman Fertitta, the company's CEO, commented on the development, stating that his company, alongside franchises, will start accepting BTC payments.

BTC adoption will be slowly incorporated in their different franchises. They would start with their branches in Mastro before progressing to other franchises. Fertitta has been a great supporter of cryptocurrencies. The CEO also sponsors an NBA team that also accepts Bitcoin payments. Food chain restaurants will not start receiving Bitcoin payments in addition to cash, credit cards, and debit cards.

Crypto integration in real estate

Besides being used to purchase food, Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are also being used in the real estate and property sector. One of the prominent companies that are venturing into this industry is Mercado Libre. This is the most prominent digital marketplace in South America. Recently, the firm stated they would start listing real estate firms on the site using cryptocurrencies.

The company stated that they have been taking note of the growing interest in crypto assets in the region. By embracing crypto, the region will be able to deal with the high levels of inflation that make it impossible for people to hold their assets in cash. Mercado Libre had earlier held a webinar aimed at educating people about the crypto market and how the market can enhance business processes.

Besides restaurants and real estate, other industries are also joining the race to integrate Bitcoin as a payment method. Tesla had earlier in the year spearheaded this race after they started accepting purchase payments using Bitcoin. This move has also pushed other companies to now adopt cryptocurrencies. If the adoption increases, it will see the values of cryptocurrencies shoot, which will positively impact the crypto market cap.

Image source: AK Rockafeller

As the USA gears up for a new administration, there are a considerable number of changes expected in the working of the government. However, one thing that is likely to remain constant is that the government will continue to manipulate the Dollar currency at will, often not being sensible about it. As the project winner Joe Biden works on his transition efforts, the idea of a Green New Deal is very much on the cards. According to estimates from top economists, around $1.7 trillion might eventually be needed to get the plan into action. Rather than redistributing tax dollars, the Biden administration will likely ask the Federal Reserve for help so that they can have the freshly minted dollars as they need. 

What is the Green New Deal?

The Green New Deal is a revolutionary idea put forward by the progressive part of the Democratic party. While the other side, the Republicans hate it and consider it wasteful and useless, the progressives have made it the cornerstone of their development agenda. The idea involves ending anti-environmental procedures like fracking and drilling the national parks while pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into sustainable energy solutions like Wind and Solar. This, according to the deal’s proponents will allow the USA to go into energy independence without relying on fossil fuels while freeing up labour from the conventional “gass guzzling sectors” by banning them altogether. 

While the idea of a Green New Deal seems like a good initiative, an important question that needs to be asked is where the money is going to come from. The proponents of the bill believe that the plan can be implemented through their money printing express, the Federal Reserve Bank. The bank, however, is exhausted from these kinds of operations as it has already doled out two big packages to special interests like the big banks twice this year alone to help deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. Also, the idea of printing a lot of money to go into public sector projects at this magnitude was last done back in the 1930s in the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration when the original New Deal was passed. So, the bank is likely to try and convince the new administration to not pursue this deal. 

The Republican opponents of the deal are also fully against this massive monetary injection. However, they have been fully involved in bailout packages for the big banks before so their opposition is not about these bailout packages but rather at what they are being used for. 

What are the Ramifications of Massive Stimulus Packages?

There were many massive stimulus packages passed by governments around the world this year to help cope with the financial problems caused by the Covid-19 crisis. The European Bank passed more than 2+1 trillion EUR worth of stimulus packages and the US government has already passed more than $4 trillion worth of packages. The idea is that it will provide much needed liquidity in the financial crisis, but banks know that in the long-term the problems will be dire and the people will have to bear them too. 

First of all, the inflation rate is expected to go high. This will cause unnecessary passive appreciation of essential items including food and medicine. Inflation rate is directly tied to these stimulus packages and it is already being experienced around the world as we speak. The US inflation is expected to hit 2% and go even beyond that. Inflation is an industry killer as it is cyclic and causes price uncertainty across the economic spectrum. If the new $1.7 trillion Green New Deal is added into the mix, it will definitely have some long-term effects for the US too. 

Verdict

Climate Change is a real challenge and the countries around the world are doing their best to stop it or at least slow it down. The past 4 years in the US have resulted in a backward, climate change denying policy so it is good to see that the US is once again looking to get serious in combating climate change once again. However, if the government moves forward with a new $1.7 trillion printing spree to get it done, it won’t be without consequences. 

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One of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges Coinbase has revealed that it is experiencing an “explosion of incoming capital” from institutionalized investors around the world. Infact, Coinbase alone has over $20 billion in crypto under custody with a whopping $14 billion of them just added since April of this year. According to the exchange, a series of events have unleashed a wave of institutionalized investment the likes of which haven’t been witnessed in the sector before. 

Why has Coinbase been Successful in Shepherding in these Investors?

One of the reasons why Coinbase has been so successful in getting institutional investors from around the world to get into Bitcoin investing is because it hired some of them for solicitation. Take the exchange’s Head of Institutional Coverage Brett Tejpaul. He is a former institutional investor and he has over 25 years of experience in investing with conventional firms. He spent 17 years at Barclays, a British bank and then 9 years at JP Morgan, one of the biggest investment banks in the world based in the USA. In an interview with Heidrick and Struggles International, Tejpaul outlined the massive growth his current company is experiencing when it comes to institutionalized investors. He is particularly focusing on Prime, a service for big institutionalized investors like hedge fund managers, VCs, etc. 

Tejpaul was only recently hired to get top investors to invest in the sector. He said:

“I joined in April this year, at that time our assets, institutional assets under custody were $6 billion, today we stand at over $20 billion, so more than a 3-times increase….”

Other exchanges are also targeting big institutional investors around the world. Binance launched a platform for institutional trading back in June this year. Bitfinex, another big cryptocurrency exchange also got a $280 million crypto hedge fund Fugur Alpha and boasted about becoming the go-to exchange for institutionalized investors. 

Coinbase is Riding the Wave but Where did it Start?

But while Tejpaul may boast about getting institutional investors through Coinbase, it is actually important to understand the contribution of several pioneering funds that funneled the first big money into crypto. The very first of these was Grayscale, the first Bitcoin-focused asset management company. It invested more than $1 billion into the cryptocurrency sector during 2020 alone and that investment has probably tripled since then. Grayscale was the first institutional investor the crypto world had ever seen. Now we see funds around the world diversifying their holdings and betting on Bitcoin to get their portfolios to increase their worths. All in all, Grayscale lit the flame and the others followed. 

Other valuable Inputs and Influences

Famed trader and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones also went bullish on Bitcoin and revealed back in May this year that he had put around 2% of his sizable portfolio into Bitcoin. He also compared Bitcoin to getting into Apply and Google early on. Recently, people like Stanley Druckenmiller also revealed that they had gotten into Bitcoin while a recent survey by Cointelegraph showed that most of the European institutional investors and managers had either already invested in cryptocurrencies especially Bitcoin or are looking to get into this digital sector later on. 

Verdict

Overall, this rush of big money coming into cryptocurrencies had been predicted a while back by futurists and people who run the investment business. However, it wasn’t a single event that got many of them to invest in the sector. The interest slowly developed over time and now we are seeing billions being invested by big funds and banks every now and then. It seems like the investing community has suddenly found the next big thing to invest in and they are here to stay and take it to the moon. This influx of big money does have some downsides to it as these investors are sometimes greedy for a profit and might take off after their goals have been achieved and dump the cryptocurrency they have invested in. 

However, the crypto community is known for holding on to its long-term positions and if losses can be minimized and spread out without volatility concerns, the cryptocurrency sector can keep on pushing. So far, the sector has smashed record after record during this year and it seems like the sky is the limit for it at the moment.

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Experienced conventional markets investor and billionaire Stanley Druckenmiller has revealed that he owns Bitcoin. He also praised the cryptocurrency’s ability to be a store of value and predicted that it might challenge gold in the future for a safe haven.

Who is Stanley Druckenmiller?

Stanley Druckenmiller is a big investment banker. He shot to fame and wealth back in the 80s and 90s when he managed some of George Soros’ money. Soros is among the most well-known American billionaires in the world and he is known to be the source of funding for many liberal nonprofits and action committees. He was worth in excess of $50 billion at one time before donating most of it. People like Druckenmiller made it possible for him to be so wealthy and influential. Druckenmiller founded an investment group named Duquesne Capital back in 1981 and continued to run it till 2010. His combined investments with Soros included the Quantum Fund which he used effectively to bet against the Pound Sterling back in 1992. All of the considerable financial dealings meant that Druckenmiller is now a long-term billionaire in terms of worth despite taking a step back from the ever-busy world of corporate banking/investment. According to business analyst website Forbes, his total worth is close to $4.4 billion as of 2020. 

Druckenmiller Loves Bitcoin

Druckenmiller recently gave an interview with CNBC and praised Bitcoin as an asset. He said:

“I’m a bit of a dinosaur, but I have warmed up to the fact that bitcoin could be an asset class that has a lot of attraction as a store of value”

He further elaborated on his positive viewpoint of the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. He said that Bitcoin had been around for 13 years and with time it is gathering stabilization and prestige. He also revealed for the first time that he owned Bitcoin and was excited about its future. 

Bitcoin and Gold

Despite being bullish about the cryptocurrency itself, Druckenmiller revealed that much of his portfolio is made up of Gold. He revealed that his gold investment is many times larger than his Bitcoin investment. He does clarify that it is not due to his lack of faith in Bitcoin but because he is betting on Gold at the moment. He was also of the opinion that even if his high stakes position on Gold doesn’t go through, he will probably get better results from his Bitcoin investment anyway. 

The Reaction from the Investment Community

Other investors were quick to point out the significance of Druckenmiller giving these big favourable statements on Bitcoin. Previously, hedge fund managers and conventional investment bankers were mostly against Bitcoin and so much so that they compared it to a scam or a ponzi scheme. However, now things have changed and investors are openly declaring their admiration for the cryptocurrency and its promise of the future. 

Former big investment banker Raoul Paul said that it will open floodgates of institutionalized investment into Bitcoin. However, George Soros himself is yet to comment on the matter. 

Verdict

Every great revolution/technology in history was first heavily ridiculed before it eventually overcame all odds. Bitcoin is the key for the future and much of the flak it received in previous years was from the conventional banking industry. Many of the top investment bankers are now coming out in favour of Bitcoin. It seems that when your worst skeptic has joined your side, you can only come out stronger than ever and that can now be seen in the increasing Bitcoin price index.