n the U.S. people generally use Bitcoin as an alternative investment, helping diversify a portfolio apart from stocks and bonds. You can also use Bitcoin to make purchases, but the number of vendors that accept the cryptocurrency is still limited. Big companies that accept Bitcoin include Overstock, AT&T and Twitch. You may also find that some small local retailers or certain websites take Bitcoin, but youβll have to do some digging. That said, PayPal has announced that it will enable cryptocurrency as a funding source for purchases this year, financing purchases by automatically converting crypto holdings to fiat currency for users. βThey have 346 million users and theyβre connected to 26 million merchants,β says Spencer Montgomery, founder of Uinta Crypto Consulting. βItβs huge.β
That growth environment will include rising inflation and interest rates. Those upward shifts naturally accompany healthy growth periods as the demand for resources, products and services rise. Importantly, the Federal Reserve has laid out the rationale for not interfering with that natural growth transition.It's not exactly a fad, but there is a widespread willingness to pay up for a growth story. Classic fundamental analysis takes a back seat. Even negative earnings are ignored. In fact, positive earnings seem to be a limiting measure, producing the question, "Is that all you've got?" The preference is a vision of untold riches when the exciting story plays out as expected.
