Bitcoin Cash gains acceptance among retailers

Summary:

• New York State creates a digital currency task force

• Bitcoin Cash is already accepted by over 900 retailers

• Bitcoin drops after two days of increases

Cryptocurrencies have begun today’s trading on the wrong foot as many of them have experienced some drops after two days of increases. Three largest cryptocurrencies - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple - saw losses, but their scale could be described as slight at most. According to CoinMarketCap, the capitalization of the whole crypto market stands around $133 billion mark on Thursday morning.

Bitcoin (BITCOIN on xStation5) ended the yesterday’s trading at around $3830, but today it has gone down to some extent. As a result, it is trading a notch below the $3800 handle at press time. Source: xStation5

New York forms crypto task force

The New York State is launching a digital currency task force, as the Assembly Bill on the New York State Senate’s website reports. The new group will be focused on understanding digital currencies and blockchain technology. It is aimed to provide “information on the potential effects of the widespread implementation of digital currencies on financial markets in the state”, as we could read in a summary of the bill. The bill was signed by Andrew Cuomo, the Governor of New York, on December 21. Results of digital currency task force’s activity are required to be reported by December 15, 2020, thus it means that the group has nearly two years to complete its research.

Ethereum (ETHEREUM on xStation5) surged to around $155 yesterday. However, the second largest cryptocurrency has experienced a slight decline during today’s trading. Source: xStation5

Nearly 950 retailers accept Bitcoin Cash

945 retailers are already able to accept Bitcoin Cash all around the world, according to the Accept Bitcoin Cash Initiative which delivers a list of merchants accepting this cryptocurrency. What’s more, 670 brick-and-mortar merchants accept Bitcoin Cash as per the data from Marco Coino. A large part of them is localized in Europe (337). In North America we may localize as many as 134 physical stores accepting Bitcoin Cash, and in Australia 120 such merchants. Let us remind that Bitcoin Cash experienced a huge sell-off in several past months, and its hard fork may be considered as one of reasons behind these huge decreases started in November.