2/16/21, 11:12 AMBitcoin Welcomes Tesla, Mastercard, BNY Mellon, Venmo To The Cryptocurrency Party

Page 1 of 6https://www.forbes.com/sites/haileylennon/2021/02/12/bitcoin-welcom…card-bny-mellon-venmo-to-the-cryptocurrency-party/?sh=359203f0123e

Crypto & Blockchain

I cover regulatory developments impacting the cryptocurrency industry.

Bitcoin Welcomes Tesla,Mastercard, BNY Mellon,Venmo To TheCryptocurrency Party

Feb 12, 2021, 10:53am EST | 48,550 views

Hailey Lennon Contributor

To say this week has been huge for bitcoin and cryptocurrencyadoption would be an understatement. There has been so muchnews that it’s been hard to keep up, even for those of us working fulltime in the industry.

Bitcoin adoption is always noteworthy because it shows that thesetechnological improvements to our financial system are finally beingunderstood and desired.

What makes this week’s news even more exciting is that we areseeing a major shift away from traditional finance writing off thecryptocurrency industry (and the technology behind it) as only forcyberpunks or money launderers. This is a narrative that theindustry has worked to shake for a decade.

Now, we are seeing that companies like Tesla want bitcoin on their

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2/16/21, 11:12 AMBitcoin Welcomes Tesla, Mastercard, BNY Mellon, Venmo To The Cryptocurrency Party

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balance sheet and BNY Mellon, Mastercard and PayPal/Venmo seethe customer demand high enough to meet it.

Tesla

On Monday, Tesla announced it bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcointo ensure “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returnson our cash.” This move by Tesla and Elon Musk was well receivedby the industry, although some accurately pointed out that Musk hadshilled Dogecoin on Twitter, while apparently having Tesla buybitcoin instead.

Aubrey Strobel, Head of Communications of Lolli, the world'sleading bitcoin rewards company, pointed out: “Bitcoin is becomingfully integrated. Now that Tesla has added bitcoin to its balancesheet, retail investors have exposure to bitcoin when they buy $TSLAor the S&P 500.”

2/16/21, 11:12 AMBitcoin Welcomes Tesla, Mastercard, BNY Mellon, Venmo To The Cryptocurrency Party

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Close up of Tesla logo on a charger at a Supercharger rapid battery charging station for the

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This also led to a slew of companies making statements about theirstance on bitcoin. Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshah dismissed theidea of adding bitcoin on its balance sheet, saying “we are going tokeep our cash safe.” For the record, bitcoin is safe but what he wasreferencing is Bitcoin’s volatility. He also left open the possibility ofUber accepting cryptocurrencies as payment in the future.

2/16/21, 11:12 AMBitcoin Welcomes Tesla, Mastercard, BNY Mellon, Venmo To The Cryptocurrency Party

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Mastercard

On Wednesday, Mastercard announced its plan to give merchantsthe option to receive payments in cryptocurrency later this year. Thiswill allow Mastercard customers’ digital currency payments to besettled in crypto at participating merchants, a first for the company.

In a blog post, Mastercard’s EVP forBlockchain and Digital AssetProducts, Raj Dhamodharan noted,“Our philosophy on cryptocurrenciesis straightforward: It’s about choice.Mastercard isn’t here to recommendyou start using cryptocurrencies. Butwe are here to enable customers,merchants and businesses to move

digital value.”

BNY Mellon

Yesterday, (are y’all keeping up with me? Phew) BNY Mellon, the $2trillion banking giant, announced the creation of a Digital AssetsUnit, which the company describes as “a team dedicated to buildingthe first multi-asset custody and administration platform fortraditional and digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.”

For anyone familiar with the cryptocurrency industry and thetroubles cryptocurrency companies have in obtaining bank accounts,

2/16/21, 11:12 AMBitcoin Welcomes Tesla, Mastercard, BNY Mellon, Venmo To The Cryptocurrency Party

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let alone custodying cryptocurrency with a Bank, this news wasexciting and shows immense progress. Banks like Silvergate Bank,who were early adopters in the space, as well as the OCC have pavedthe way for banks like BNY Mellon to be willing and able to providebanking and cryptocurrency services. Alan Lane, Chief ExecutiveOfficer of Silvergate Bank commented by email that the Bank sees“this as a tremendous validation of the platform we’ve built.”

Brian Brooks, former Comptroller of the Currency of the OCC toldme, “When the oldest bank in the United States decides to adopt thenewest money in the world, that shows the inevitable convergencebetween cryptocurrency and banking.”

Venmo

PayPal also announced today that itis considering adding cryptocurrencyas a payment option throughVenmo. In 2020, PayPal itselfintroduced cryptocurrency as afunding source for digital commerceat its 26 million merchants. Venmoboasts over 52 million individualusers.

Conclusion

Regardless of your personal opinion on cryptocurrency, all of this issummed up as big news for this growing industry. Erik Voorhees,CEO of ShapeShift.com, a leading cryptocurrency exchange

2/16/21, 11:12 AMBitcoin Welcomes Tesla, Mastercard, BNY Mellon, Venmo To The Cryptocurrency Party

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explained to me, “The recent Bitcoin announcements by majorcompanies is indicative of this rising future financial system. Onebuilt on open, borderless protocols, and immutable money."

Aubrey Strobel of Lolli, eloquently summed the week up, “In thesame week, the world’s most progressive company, Tesla, andAmerica’s oldest bank, BNY Mellon, have added bitcoin to theirbusiness models. It’s no longer a matter of if institutions will adoptbitcoin, it’s a matter of when. One by one, institutional investors arevalidating the intuitive value and underlying logic of bitcoin.”

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Hailey Lennon

I currently provide legal consulting to cryptocurrency and fintech companies.

Prior to consulting, I spent years as Regulatory Counsel for various companies

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