Read in the Digest;
- BlackRock Plans to Offer Crypto Trading, Voyager to Allow Stock Purchase with USDC
- Apple to Integrate Crypto Payment with Upcoming ‘Tap To Pay’ Feature
- Bitcoin Beats Nvidia to Enter Top 10 Global Assets by Market Cap
- Samsung Launches S22 in the Metaverse, McDonald’s Files for Metaverse Restaurant
BlackRock Plans to Offer Crypto Trading, Voyager to Allow Stock Purchase with USDC
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with over $10 trillion in assets under management, is preparing to allow its clients to trade cryptocurrencies. The service will allow clients of BlackRock to trade crypto through the firm’s ALADDIN investment platform.
Reports suggest that the service will allow BlackRock’s clients to borrow crypto as collateral from the manager. The next phase of its plans will see the management firm proceed to offer its own credit facility for crypto trading.
In another service expansion, Voyager Digital has announced its plans to launch a feature that will help users buy stocks with stablecoin USD Coin (USDC). Voyager announced a partnership with Market Rebellion for its new services.
Partnering with the trading and investment firm, Voyager plans to operate a regulated broker-dealer to offer these services. Voyager also plans to launch a crypto-based debit Mastercard over the next eight weeks.
Flipsider:
- Continuing to push against the direct exposure of crypto to investors, the SEC now seeks public feedback on Grayscale’s BTC spot ETF application.
Why You Should Care
These new services are examples of how cryptocurrencies are beginning to find diversified use cases in the financial industry.
Apple to Integrate Crypto Payment with Upcoming ‘Tap To Pay’ Feature
In a move that will benefit cryptocurrency users, Apple has announced its plans to launch a new “Tap To Pay” feature, allowing Apple Pay merchants to easily facilitate transactions using a simple tap regardless of the payment method.
According to Apple, Tap To Pay does not require any additional hardware or payment terminal. iPhone users can use contactless credit and debit cards from prominent payment networks, such as American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa.
The feature that Apple says will debut before the end of 2022 will make crypto payments possible across mainstream merchants and businesses. This contactless service will convert the crypto holdings of a buyer into the USD equivalent requested by a merchant.
Flipsider:
- The new feature will not allow Apple iPhone users to complete a direct cryptocurrency transaction, only make purchases with crypto in their portfolio.
Why You Should Care
Apple’s new feature will allow customers to use their cryptocurrency holdings to make payments via Tap to Pay.
Bitcoin Beats Nvidia to Enter Top 10 Global Assets by Market Cap
As Bitcoin continues its strong recovery in February, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has found its way into the top 10 biggest global assets ranked by market cap. Bitcoin finds its way into the list ahead of Berkshire Hathaway and Nvidia.
Bitcoin’s market cap of $845.72 billion earns the digital asset the 9th position on the list ahead of Berkshire Hathaway with $720.6 billion. Tesla, which is valued at $963.23 billion, sits a position ahead of Bitcoin.
Top 10 assets ranked by market cap
The recent rally, which has seen the value of Bitcoin’s biggest rival, Ethereum, rise by 25% over the last seven days, has helped the crypto overtake Walmart, Mastercard, Nestle, and Alibaba to become the 24th largest global asset. Ethereum has a market cap of $388.65 billion.
Flipsider:
- Despite Bitcoin trading above $44k, JP Morgan has put its fair value at $38,000, which would rank it under the top 10 global assets.
Why You Should Care
The widespread adoption of Bitcoin has seen its market cap grow from $200 billion in 2020 to $845 billion in 2022.
Samsung Launches S22 in the Metaverse, McDonald’s Files for Metaverse Restaurant
With limits on live events, Samsung turned to the metaverse for the “Samsung Unpacked 2022: The Epic Standard of Smartphone Experiences,” where it unveiled the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy Tab S8.
The launch of Samsung’s premium flagship devices attracted over 100,000 attendees to the Samsung 837X space in the Decentraland metaverse. Along with the unveiling, users were given a chance to unlock new virtual clothes in a Samsung quest.
McDonald’s also joins the ranks of leading companies entering the metaverse by submitting trademarks of its brand for the virtual world. The trademark will see McDonald’s build a restaurant and a McCafe brand in the metaverse.
Josh Gerben explained that part of the trademark would see McDonald’s build “a virtual restaurant featuring actual and virtual goods” and “operating a virtual restaurant featuring home delivery.”
Flipsider:
- However, due to technical issues, users present at the event could not preorder devices, which was supposed to be one of the event’s highlights.
Why You Should Care
The early promise of changing the way we interact, play, and work in the future is slowly being fulfilled as the metaverse sees more use cases.
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