Leading Mexican Retailer Accepts Bitcoin for Payment Whilst Vaneck and SBI Set up Altcoin Funds

GB Market Commentary 20/12/2021

by Marcus Sotiriou

Bitcoin has dropped this morning to around $46,300 but is holding up well considering US stock futures are down significantly – the S&P 500 futures is down 1.56% at time of writing. However, sellers appear to be getting exhausted in the short term and a bounce is expected when the stock market sees some relief.

Bitcoin adoption continues to grow as leading retailer Elektra in Latin America is now accepting Bitcoin for payments. Elektra is a supermarket and banking chain that belongs to Grupo Salinas, which is owned by Mexico’s third richest billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego. Salinas said “the rumours are true. Elektra is the first (retail) store in Mexico that allows you to buy with bitcoin. I’m very sorry to beat the competition again.” Also, the retail chain is offering a 20% discount on some purchases made with Bitcoin. This global acceptance of Bitcoin leads me to believe we will not experience multiyear long bear markets as seen previously.

It is not just Bitcoin that is seeing institutional interest – many new altcoin funds are being set up. Financial services company SBI has announced the launch of a crypto asset fund that consists of seven different cryptocurrencies. The fund will include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), Chainlink (LINK), Litecoin (LTC), XRP (XRP), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Furthermore, crypto wealth manager Vaneck has expanded its exchange trade notes (ETN) offerings to Avalanche and Matic. This is in addition to ETNs for Bitcoin Ethereum, Polkadot, Solana and Tron. ETNs are like exchange-traded funds (ETFs) but ETNs are considered unsecured debt securities. Institutional clients are clearly demanding these assets which shows the recognition that altcoins are receiving as the crypto market matures.