Which Financial Institutions Are Adopting Bitcoin? 2021 Update
One of the most common criticisms against bitcoin is that its value is purely speculative, making it an asset and not a currency. Plenty of others believe governments and major financial institutions will never get on board with crypto, preventing it from ever becoming mainstream. It’s true that barely any retailers accepted bitcoin in the early days, never mind major banks — but times have changed.
Many big-time financial organizations are now investing in bitcoin, or even making it part of their services. Don’t believe us? Here’s a selection of significant companies that have decided to adopt or use the cryptocurrency.
#1 - Payment processors
Payment processors are perhaps the most influential entities in making crypto mainstream, and they’ve progressed further with their adoption than most people realize.
You can now buy, hold, and sell bitcoin on PayPal, and you can also use it to pay for goods or services — but only for eligible purchases, and it has to be converted to a fiat currency at checkout.
Rival Square has also made some serious moves — the firm recently announced that it’s creating a new platform focused on financial services using bitcoin. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering CEO Jack Dorsey is a big bitcoin fan and plans to implement it in his other company, Twitter.
#2 - Banks
Banks are also getting in on the action.
Goldman Sachs was among the first banks to be interested in crypto back in 2018. The bank has now made its first bitcoin derivatives trades and began trading bitcoin futures with the crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital, among other signs of involvement.
Fellow investment bank JP Morgan might be headed by a bitcoin skeptic, but it recently created its own bitcoin fund and has made it available for its clients to trade, along with crypto funds the bank has now adopted.
Bank of NY Mellon now also plans to offer bitcoin-related services. Despite initial regulatory concerns, the bank will now let its clients hold crypto through its financial infrastructure.
“Now you have Square and Tesla and Marathon and MicroStrategy and 24 other companies and 12 public bitcoin miners and ETFs. It [bitcoin] institutionalized, it nationalized, it westernized.” - Michael Saylor
#3 - Hedge funds
One report found that 20% of traditional hedge funds plan to invest in more crypto assets. Plus, around 1% of fund executives now expect to have at least 1% of their portfolio in crypto, with many expecting much more — the average was 10.6% in North America.
One of the big names joining the party is Third Point, a $17 billion hedge fund that revealed in April it’s holding bitcoin through Coinbase.
Millennium Management is also involved, with reports that it’s exposed to the Bitcoin fund Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC). The firm is one of the largest hedge funds globally and manages around $48 billion in assets, so this is big news.
“Bitcoin is the strongest asset.” - Michael Saylor
Ready to get involved in bitcoin?
If you believed lack of bitcoin adoption by the mainstream was one of the major hurdles holding you back from getting involved in crypto, hopefully you’ve now reconsidered your position. Remember, we’ve only picked out a handful of the best-known companies — there are many more organizations that we could have chosen.
While there are undoubtedly risks involved in bitcoin and it’s not an investment to take lightly, the signs are there that major institutions are finally taking crypto seriously. If you’d like to learn a little more before you can commit, look no further than Bitcoin First Steps — our free guides will talk you through everything you need to know.