13th October 2022 > > Google.

tl;dr

Google adopts crypto for payments.

Market Snap

Market Wrap

CryptoQuant reports that whales – defined as wallets holding between 100 and 1,000 BTC (I wish) – have been depositing coins at centralised exchanges at an increasing rate.

This is usually interpreted as foreshadowing a potential sell-off as holders ready themselves to press the sell button. That doesn’t mean that the decision to sell has been taken, but as the ferocity of Putin’s murderous acts in Ukraine gathers pace, perhaps the ability to execute quickly looks favourable to some.

Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Crypto adoption

Yet another example of how companies and businesses are warming to the idea of using cryptos.

This time it is Google.

In partnership with Coinbase – effectively removing cryptocurrency market risk from its own books – Google will start accepting payments for some of its services, from a limited number of its customers in early 2023.

Small steps I know, but if the initiative is successful (as it undoubtedly will be) we should expect the range of services, and the extent of the customer base able to access this functionality, to grow.

I keep repeating the following point, but it is an important one, and worth repeating for that reason.

This steady, and ever growing, stream of organisations willing to devote senior management time, resources, and hard cash, to incorporating crypto payments and services into their business model is not simply due to a love of all things crypto, though I like to think that plays a part.

It is because of customer demand for this functionality.

…

The holy grail, as it were, of retail-related crypto adoption, would be for Amazon to incorporate crypto payments into its ubiquitous online marketplace.

We know that will happen one day, it’s just a matter of timing.

Coinbase has long been a corporate customer of Amazon’s cloud business.

One element of this new deal is that Coinbase will move that business away from Amazon to Google’s own cloud business.

That should get the naysayers at Amazon – who are clearly in the ascendency today in that organisation – scratching their heads as to why they are getting it all so wrong.