BTC 'should' be trading above $12k by the end of the month.

Promise delivered!

So I woke up this morning seeing that 5% bump and I thought for sure we must have agreed to some kind of stimulus situation.

Nope

As it turns out from the dozen articles in my crypto news feed, Paypal is now offering their users to hold Bitcoin on their Venmo app. That'll do it.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-breaks-above-12-3k-after-paypal-confirms-venmo-to-become-btc-wallet

In my eyes, this is a pretty big deal because of how many people use Venmo these days. It's an app targeting the younger generation, which is good for crypto. More importantly is the way funds are transferred on Venmo

With Venmo you essentially send money to accounts by their identifying phone number. So now we are going to have a centralized avenue for sending Bitcoin via phone number.

What does it mean?

Can you imagine the User Interface and User Experience? (UI/UX)

I can, and it looks sexy. The front face of this isn't going to have any public addresses confusing anyone. It will show how much Bitcoin we have in our account and how much USD there is. We'll be able to send Bitcoin back and forth using phone numbers and a friends list. Sounds like mainstream adoption to me.

Think about it. There are millions of users on Venmo who don't know anything about Bitcoin. When they receive Bitcoin as a payment what are they going to do? Probably just liquidate it into USD (something they do understand... sort of). It makes the whole process very simple and streamlined.

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It's probably a good time to mention that all my roommates pay rent to the landlord with Venmo.

That's right... and come 2021, I'll be able to pay rent in Bitcoin in a super convenient manner. Sounds good to me.

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Security

In all likelihood, PayPal/Venmo will act as custodian for the Bitcoin just like a centralized exchange. Hopefully they offer some kind of advanced wallet option that allows users to secure it themselves... but don't hold your breath. Who knows, maybe it will become a trend that centralized custodians start decentralizing their security so they no longer guard these huge hacker honeypots. One can hope.

Conclusion

Bitcoin was always going to be trading higher than $12k this month no matter what, but now we have all these nice narratives to cling to. A flood of retail money will flow this Christmas, pushing Bitcoin to all time highs. November is gonna be a great month. Are you ready?