Bitcoin is on track to rise for the fourth month in a row, its longest streak in two years.
That's according to a Sunday (April 30) Bloomberg News report, who points out that this type of steak has historically been good for bitcoin, as his data shows that bitcoin's four-month advances heralded an average 260% jump in the following year. In this case, that would take Bitcoin to a record high of $105,000.
"The most important thing for cryptocurrencies is that it is a lightning rod for liquidity." Christopher Forbesboss CMC Invest Singaporehe told Bloomberg Television. "And as liquidity returns to the market, and we're seeing it, I think cryptocurrencies will continue to do well."
The report also notes that, in recent days, Standard Chartered Bank, BCA Research, and Bloomberg Intelligence have pointed out potential paths for Bitcoin to reach $100,000.
"The recent crisis in the banking sector has helped to re-establish bitcoin's core use case as a decentralized, untrusted and scarce digital asset." geoff kendrickhead of cryptocurrency research and EM FX West at Standard Chartered, he wrote in a note.
The news comes amid a flurry of regulatory activity surrounding the cryptocurrency space, such as the European Union's April 20 approval of the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation, giving, as PYMNTS wrote, " the historically beleaguered digital asset sector โฆa legitimate gateway to one of the largest and most mature market economies in the world.โ
As that report noted, market watchers are increasingly taking the position that MiCA could help the crypto industry finally get something it has found elusive throughout its decade-plus history: the access to banking services.
Meanwhile, the embrace of cryptocurrency is not extending to credit unions, according to recent research from PYMNTS and PSCU.
The April 2023 report "Credit Union Innovation: Closing the Cryptocurrency Gap" finds that 56% of credit union leaders say they are less enthusiastic about providing cryptocurrency products for their members.
Cryptocurrency remains a hot topic in the news, and while just under 1 in 3 US consumers own cryptocurrency (31%), those who do tend to keep cryptocurrency in mind when making a range of financial decisions. , including the place where they carry out banking operations.
โThis points to a potential disconnect between what some credit union members want and what some credit union executives plan to offer,โ PYMNTS wrote.
Some observers say that the more consumers educate themselves about the possibilities of cryptocurrencies, the more willing they will be to experiment with digital assets. And in fact, half of consumers say that one of the reasons they don't use cryptocurrency is because they know very little about it.
Still, credit union executives appear unconvinced, with two-thirds saying they are wary of offering cryptocurrency due to its volatility, and half pointing to the relatively weak penetration of digital assets as a payment method.
