The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is nearing the $60,000 mark once again this morning after digital payments giant PayPal announced a new feature called “Checkout with Crypto” that will allow users to pay merchants by using their cryptocurrency holdings.
This would be the fourth day of gains in the past five for Bitcoin, as the digital asset has possibly risen on the back of President Joe Biden’s administration push for a $3 trillion infrastructure spending package.
According to PayPal’s press release, this new feature will allow users to complete their online purchases by using their cryptocurrency balance without incurring any kind of fee. The transactions will be settled in US Dollars and then converted to cryptocurrencies at the applicable rate.
PayPal customers can currently buy, hold, and sell a small selection of cryptocurrencies including BTC, Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). However, the firm headed by Dan Schulman clarified that only one cryptocurrency can be used per transaction.
Up until now, users were only able to make transactions with cryptocurrencies for trading and investing purposes. Now, with the introduction of this feature, users will get the chance to use their crypto holdings to settle transactions with any of PayPal’s 29 million registered merchants, effectively opening up a huge avenue of demand for the crypto asset as millions could start adopting it as a suitable medium of exchange.
In this regard, Schulman commented: “As the use of digital payments and digital currencies accelerates, the introduction of Checkout with Crypto continues our focus on driving mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies”.
The price of Bitcoin (BTC) is reacting quietly to the news, advancing only 2.5% so far in today’s early cryptocurrency trading action at $59,050 while accumulating a 15% gain in the past 5 days.
Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin (BCH) are also trading higher, posting gains of 1.4%, 2.8%, and 2.9% respectively so far in today’s session.
What’s next for Bitcoin (BTC)?
The seemingly quiet reaction of BTC to this important news can either mean that it was already priced in or that traders have not yet reacted to the world of possibilities and growth that this development represents for crypto assets.
It is important to remember that the introduction of PayPal’s cryptocurrency trading alternative back in October 2020 was the strongest catalyst that pushed BTC’s price from around $12,000 to more than $60,000 recently – which means that the long-lasting impact of today’s announcement in the valuation of BTC should not be underestimated.
For now, the technical setup points to an upcoming resistance at the coin’s latest all-time high of $61,781. The price action needs to move above that level to possibly overturn the bearish divergence seen in both the RSI and the MACD – which could possibly give birth to a new bullish cycle.
If that does not happen, despite the positiveness of today’s news, chances are that BTC could actually pull back from its current levels, possibly finding support at the coin’s 50-day moving average of $52,650.
However, the long-term bullish case for BTC is a strong as it has ever been now that PayPal has jumped on board to strengthen the coin’s appeal as a medium exchange.
