The CEO of Bittrex Global, Oliver Linch recently disclosed that institutional interest in Bitcoin has arrived. Linch added that he is anticipating more adoption, stating that leading financial institutions like Goldman Sachs will soon take on a larger role in crypto.

In an interview with Scott Melker, the head of the crypto exchange clarified that institutional adoption will not hurt cryptocurrency but rather aid the pace of innovation within the industry. 

While acknowledging that there may be some painful moments along the way especially as it relates to regulation, Linch however anticipates that many partnerships will be formed between traditional financial institutions and those in the crypto sector which will be good for the crypto industry. 

Speaking further, Linch also disclosed that during the bear market, many of the financial giants moved to establish crypto divisions within their companies, positioning themselves for the growth of the industry.

“Historically, those big players have been the biggest drivers of innovation. Are they a bit slow to adopt at the moment? Yeah, sure. But actually, the big change will happen when they stop fighting it and we stop fighting them. 

“And we start talking about partnering and working together. Show them a way that it can be done and it can make them money and I guarantee you they won’t stand in the way of that. They’ll be pedal to the metal to exploit that opportunity.” Linch said. 

Investors King earlier reported that bitcoin is up by 50% this year and it has outperformed major stock indexes and commodities despite the collapse of major crypto-related banks. 

A report made by Goldman Sachs shows bitcoin as the best-performing investment asset in the world since the beginning of 2023, outperforming gold, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100. 

Bitcoin has so far enjoyed a remarkable year. From a low of $16,000, the flagship cryptocurrency is currently trading at $28,154. Data from Binance platform shows. 

Bitcoin has outperformed traditional investment assets and sectors, such as technology and gold, in year-to-date (YTD) absolute returns, recent data from Goldman Sachs reveals. 

According to the data, the leading cryptocurrency has gained 51% in YTD absolute returns, surpassing information technology (+16%), communication services (+15%), consumer discretionary (+11%), Russell 1000 Growth (+10%), gold (+4%), and the S&P 500 (+4%).

Bitcoin’s recent surge in price has been attributed to the crises that befell the US banking industry, leading to issues of confidence in the sector. Investors King understands that the flagship cryptocurrency has increased in price by 35% since March 10 when regulators shut down Silicon Valley Bank.

Contrary to 2022, the primary digital asset started off the new year on the right foot. Its price has skyrocketed from $16,500 on January 1 to approximately $28,400. This has caused some to believe that the bear market could be over and that BTC has entered into a new bull run. 

According to the CEO of the crypto intelligence firm Messari, there is a favourable scenario that could see bitcoin surging above $100,000 in the next twelve months. 

Similarly, a former CTO of Coinbase, Balaji Srinivasan has advised his Twitter followers to buy bitcoin and lock it up for 90 days. He believes Bitcoin price explosion will happen due to a possible collapse of the US banking system and consecutive hyperinflation. 

Meanwhile, led by bitcoin, the entire cryptocurrency market has been recovering in the past few weeks against the backdrop of the widespread crisis in the banking sector. The cryptocurrency market capitalisation is currently at $1.22 trillion, adding 0.23% in the last 24 hours, data from CoinGeko shows.

Going forward, Bitcoin is also primed to go through another halving in the first phase of 2024 which could be another potential price hike for the most capitalised cryptocurrency and by extension, the entire crypto market.  

Cryptocurrency purchase in Nigeria is about to get easier as MetaMask enabled direct purchases for users in Nigeria.

A statement from MetaMask’s parent company, ConSensyn disclosed that Nigerian users can now purchase crypto through bank transfer.

According to the Web 3 company, the direct purchase which will result in a faster, cheaper and more seamless crypto purchase experience in Nigeria is done in partnership with Moonpay.  

Investors King understands that before now, buying cryptocurrency outside the Peer to Peer (P2P) market in Nigeria is challenging after the Central Bank of Nigeria bans commercial banks from accommodating crypto-related transactions. 

MetaMask noted that its Web 3 wallet is widely used in Nigeria, leading to increasing crypto adoption in the most populous black country in the world. 

The company also added that Nigeria is among metamask’s top markets globally, ranking third in mobile active users while the country also ranks among the top ten countries visitors to metamask.io. (MetaMask Web Platform).

“Our partnership with MetaMask will enable us to provide Nigerian users with Bank Transfers, a widely used payment method across Nigerian e-commerce businesses. We hope this integration opens the doors for Nigerians to fund their self-custody wallet through a simplified user experience,” a statement from MetaMask read. 

Speaking on the development, MoonPay Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Zeeshan Feroz, said the partnership with MetaMask will enable the company to provide Nigerian users with Bank Transfers, a widely used payment method across Nigerian e-commerce businesses. He added that the integration will help to simplify users experience.

Meanwhile, Mouloukou Sanoh, the co-founder of Cassava Network, a Web3 platform has said that Nigeria’s web 3 industry is fast growing and could be one of the leaders in the world. 

He noted that Nigeria has a large youth population with a huge number that grew up with the Internet; stating that this is the perfect environment for web3 to thrive.