The BioMedWire Podcast

Jonathan Keim, communications director of CryptoCurrencyWire, kicked off his report with the eye-catching news that Grayscale was debuting a new TV campaign focusing on the history of money (http://ccw.fm/2j0DA). Grayscale Investments, reportedly the world’s largest digital currency asset manager, is launching an advertising “blitzkrieg” to raise awareness of its products. The company provides a suite of investment products based on crypto assets that includes Bitcoin Trust, Bitcoin Cash Trust, Ethereum Trust, Ethereum Classic Trust, Horizen Trust, Litecoin Trust, Stellar Lumens Trust, XRP Trust, Zcash Trust and Grayscale Digital Large Cap Fund. The campaign will “illustrate how money has evolved over thousands of years” as well as how “we’ve ‘proceeded to wave goodbye to value, printing unlimited amounts of money.’”

Next up, was the news that Coinbase now allows Bitcoin, Ethereum, and XRP holders to pay for goods directly from their accounts (http://ccw.fm/9QCwI). Coinbase, a large cryptocurrency exchange, has partnered with BitPay, the Bitcoin payment service provider, to allow crypto holders to become crypto consumers. The integration of the two companies’ APIs will allow Coinbase users to “spend bitcoin, ether, XRP, USD Coin and other major cryptocurrencies to pay for goods offered by BitPay-supported merchants, which include Microsoft, Twitch and the Dallas Mavericks.”

Keim’s final feature showed that transacting in Bitcoin has become part and parcel of everyday life: one million Bitcoin wallets are now being used every day (http://ccw.fm/j3zM3). It appears that Bitcoin use has risen, once again, to levels not seen since late 2017. At that time, the cryptocurrency was trading at around $20,000. Bitcoin transaction levels tend to correlate positively with its price, but only since 2018, says Glassnode, the Bitcoin analytics firm that examined the data. Other factors — including increasing awareness and the potential to be a hedge against inflation — have historically influenced transaction volume, as indicated by the number of active addresses.

To view the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit http://ccw.fm/JE1OD