Bitcoin has climbed on four of the past five days, and the price is now pushing back toward $60,000 for the first time in a couple weeks.
“It wasn’t with the fanfare and fireworks, but instead just a standard grind higher, helped in part by the continued positive adoption news flow,” Matt Blom, head of sales and trading with the digital-asset firm Equos, wrote Tuesday in an email.
Several stories reinforced the theme of growing mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies, echoing the takeaway from Visa’s announcement on Monday.
PayPal on Tuesday announced a Checkout service that will allow bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), bitcoin cash (BCH) and litecoin (LTC) to be seamlessly converted into U.S. dollars or other fiat currencies when making purchases, the same as a credit card or a debit card would work inside a PayPal wallet.
Blockstream, the bitcoin development company, is launching a token tied to the company’s bitcoin-mining production, redeemable in bitcoin.
Derivatives exchange Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) will launch smaller-sized bitcoin “micro” futures contracts in May, potentially expanding the number of people who bet on the future price of the leading cryptocurrency.