Hello as always, and welcome again to another edition of Overbit Weekly Roundup.
Another week passes by in the cryptocurrency markets, and yet again, some of the biggest news to share has to do with cryptocurrency adoption.
This week the news comes out of the United States. According to CNBC, customers of some U.S. banks will soon be able to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin directly through their existing bank account, per information from the cryptocurrency custody firm NYDIG. "The company, a subsidiary of $10 billion New York-based asset manager Stone Ridge, has partnered with fin-tech giant Fidelity National Information Services to enable U.S. banks to offer Bitcoin in coming months, according to the two firms."
Though this all news to us, hundreds of banks are already enrolled in the program slated to start in the next few months. According to Patrick Sells, head of bank solutions at NYDIG, most of the banks signed up are smaller regional banks, though the program is already in talks with some of the nation's biggest banks as well.
This move reportedly comes after months if not years of banks seeing customers money moving into services like Coinbase. With the recent unrest in the past few months, it seems the sheer volume of money was finally worth moving in house for some banks.
Once again, the cryptocurrency community is greeted with an unmistakable sign of its growing adoption. Though the program is limited to Bitcoin-only and only a few hundred banks, the demand alone for such a program speaks to how much this industry continues to encroach on the rest of the financial world.
Closing out this week's edition, we stay in the United States but pivot towards a different sector in the crypto industry - mining.
According to a new report from Nasdaq.com, Texas is quickly becoming a hub or, as they call it, a 'mecca' for Bitcoin mining. Their reporting indicates that a mix of regulations and unique energy sources drive Bitcoin mining industries into the Lone Star state.
At first glance, Texas might seem like an unlikely 'mecca' for large scale Bitcoin mining operations. Although energy prices in Texas are relatively low - a big draw for miners -the state's reserve margins are almost non-existent, as was demonstrated by a recent ice storm that left some homes and businesses without power for up to four days. On top of that, Texas is not exactly in an ideal climate from a cooling point of view.
However, that's the interesting part about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining in general - new incentives for new approaches to energy generation. And in Texas, that's taking the form of gas-venting.
Thanks to its plethora of oil and gas fields throughout the state, there is an excess of wasted energy in Texas that's simply vented or flared out into the atmosphere in the form of natural gas and other fossil fuel derivatives. With the new incentives in place for Bitcoin, entrepreneurs and engineers alike have sought out this 'stranded' fuel source in an effort to mine cheaper and more efficiently.
On top of that, it also provides an opportunity to build up an off-grid mining operation, effectively a more decentralised one.
The former governor of Texas, Rick Perry, called cryptocurrency miners "a major accelerant for job creation and sustainable economic growth in the state," while current governor Greg Abbott has put out the welcome mat for Bitcoin mining companies.
That’s it for this week at Overbit’s Round Up, and we look forward to seeing you next week!