If it wasn’t clear enough by the recent Super Bowl, Crypto might not be regulated in most of the world, but personal consumers, startups and investors aren’t waiting for approvals.
cryptocurrency is thriving, and ad budgets follow.
The Most Prominent Example of a Blockchain Payment Method
Cryptocurrency has coins like any other currency, except they’re digital coins and they’re created differently than what we’ve used to know so far. Instead of getting money printed at the bank, crypto mining from the blockchain basically means creating data-based algorithms. It requires very advanced technology and computers. Therefore, creating crypto coins basically means solving mathematical equations.
When you combine all the cryptocurrencies together, we’re talking about an industry that’s worth more than $2 trillion. However, the most popular and successful cryptocurrency on the blockchain is Bitcoin.
Just as impressive as how it’s mined is the growth that Bitcoin has experienced since its 2009 creation by an anonymous developer working under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Once upon a time, you could buy one Bitcoin for less than one scent. A few weeks ago, buying one of its crypto coins already required an investment of $60,000.
From a Complete Ban to Official Currency: Bitcoin Around the World
Digital coins can no longer be ignored. Governments around the world finally understand they’ve got to make long-term decisions about them. Interestingly, different countries have reacted differently to this revolution. Some try to shut it down, as others seek to realize its potential for their citizens.
“China’s central bank,” for example, “has announced that all transactions of cryptocurrencies are illegal, effectively banning digital tokens such as Bitcoin,” reported the BBC in late September 2021. The BBC pointed out that “China is one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency markets,” so when it made this announcement, “the price of Bitcoin fell by more than $2,000.”
Brazil, on the other hand, understands that digital coins are here to stay. It’s currently working on a bill “to increase investor protection with stricter regulation for companies getting involved in ‘virtual assets,’” reported Nasdaq in October 2021.
El Salvador took this a step further.
“On September 7, 2021, El Salvador became the first country to make Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender,” reported the Motley Fool. The US dollar is still a legal currency in El Salvador, alongside the crypto coins, so “people aren’t forced to pay in crypto,” but “the country’s Bitcoin law means all businesses are now obliged to take Bitcoin payments,” explains.
As a result of these and other movements toward blockchain technology, the drop in crypto coin value following China’s announcement ended up being only a little hiccup. The market has already corrected itself since then.
Social Media Campaigns & Influencer Marketing Attract New Bitcoin Users
Crypto organizations are tapping into the power of influencers to expand their reach and build trust with audiences. The American branch of crypto exchange FTX, for example, launched massive branding and social media campaigns in September 2021, during the NFL season kickoff game, for a total investment of $20 million, reported The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The ad and social media campaign featured influencer “married couple of football great Tom Brady and model and businesswoman Gisele Bundchen,” added WSJ. Additional influencer marketing plans have been made to partner up with NBA player Steph Curry, it reported.
Brady and Bundchen have already started posting sponsored content about digital coins and exchanges on their social media channels, and they’re not alone.
Influencers such as Floyd Mayweather and Tana Mongeau have taken part in social media campaigns that promote crypto coins and exchanges, reported CNBC. “TikTok stars Charli, 17, and Dixie D’Amelio, 19, posted their partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Gemini,” targeting young followers, reported CNBC.
“Even Kim Kardashian West posted an ad for Etherummax on her Instagram story… to her 228 million followers,” CNBC added.
Fintech Apps Make Bitcoin Easily Accessible to the General Public
According to Time.com, “digital payment giants PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App — along with mobile stock-trading platform Robinhood — are making it easier to invest in cryptocurrency than ever before, with options to buy and trade coins within their apps.”
Our client, the eToro app, is another fintech app helping everyday consumers buy digital coins. Some of the crypto coins one can buy with them include Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecon. As the eToro app explains, it offers a “trading platform, wallet and exchange all in one,” plus the safety of trading with a regulated fintech app.
All that, alongside regular trading, makes crypto almost as ordinary as any other currency. Of course, just like any technology, blockchain can be used for good… or it can be used to cause damage.
Hackers are Ahead of the Bitcoin Revolution
Hackers didn’t wait for social media campaigns or influencers to create crypto-related TikTok videos. They’ve been ahead of fintech apps and many of the rest of us, asking for ransomware in crypto coins, and specifically Bitcoin, for quite a while now.
As a result, they’ve enjoyed the significant fluctuations that sometimes drive Bitcoin’s value up – a lot – quickly.
In May 2019, the city of Baltimore became “a victim of a ransomware attack, in which critical files [were] encrypted remotely until a ransom is paid,” reported The New York Times (NYT). The price of the ransomware was quoted in Bitcoin – 3 Bitcoins per system or 13 for everything that got encrypted.
The attack happened on May 7. Back then, it meant paying “$17,000 per system, or less than $75,000 for them all,” explained NYT. When the reporting article was published on May 22, the mayor was still contemplating whether to pay the ransomware – but the crypto coin price had already skyrocketed.
It would now cost the city almost $24,000 to release just one system or approximately $102,000 to release everything, explained NYT.
You, of course, are encouraged to use blockchain technology for ethical financial and corporate growth.
The Best Time to Pay Attention to Bitcoin Was 10 Years Ago. The Second Best Time?
Now. Many of us have fallen behind on the Bitcoin and blockchain revolution. It was new, different and unregulated. But as it becomes mainstream and the cost of each coin soars, it’s important to educate yourself, so you can still enjoy the benefits it has to offer, even if all you can tap into is a fraction of one Bitcoin, while it’s still possible.