Ignore the haters: Crypto is the way

If you only looked at the headlines, you’d be convinced that the crypto bubble was about to burst. 

It’s basically only bad news. You see nothing but negativity. 

It’s a bear market, the headline screams, pointing out that Bitcoin is down from about $37,375 a month ago to about $32,850 USD today. Ethereum following the trend too, down from about $2,610 to about $2,115. How low can it go, it asks?

Another explains that China/Nigeria/India has banned or is looking to ban crypto! What will the people there do? 

A serious warning about this or that scam follows. Beware of the crypto criminals, the newspapers tell us. 

Doom and gloom. It’s enough to make you want to give up and put all your money into Star Wars figurines, baseball cars or, worse, a tax free savings account.  It’s all very bleak. 

But, if you scrape below the surface you might find that the bad headlines are only part of the story. Although, the price has undeniably dropped (as all commodities do from time to time) and there are bad actors out there trying to scam people (which isn’t unique to the crypto space), there are a lot of positive signs as well. 

In fact, even the constant amount of negative stories can be seen as a positive. It means that the establishment is either threatened by crypto and is trying to undermine confidence in it, or that there is a desire to better understand it in the media. Either way it means that it’s here as an established force and isn’t likely going away. 

There was some positive news this week that was reported, as well — although not nearly as widely as the clickbait negativity. 

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) announced intentions to create a card in partnership with crypto exchange Gemini, which was founded by Mark Zuckerberg’s favourite twins, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss. The card will allow consumers to earn cryptocurrency as a reward, just like you can collect Airmiles, or gain cash back, with your card currently. 

That news was followed up with Visa (NYSE:V) providing figures related to the amount of crypto spending it helped facilitate so far in 2021 — $1-billion, in fact. The company says that similar spending over the last two years was “a fraction” of that.

That the two biggest credit cards in the world were making positive noises about crypto in the same week tells you much more than 100 dramatic headlines about something bad. Those companies understand consumer spending and it is in their interest to be ahead of the curve when it comes to it. 

And they are both high on crypto.

Personally, I’m going to listen to Visa and Mastercard far closer than I am some hysterical journalist looking for attention, or a frightened politician trying to hold onto power by destabilizing the crypto space.  

So should you.