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Wall Street, government agencies and payment giants were key movers in BTC's move into the mainstream over the past two years, Reuters looks back

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Bitcoin has gone mainstream in the past few months, thanks to moves by big corporations, big investors, banks and payment processors.

By Tom Westbrook, Vidya Ranganathan, Sriraj Kalluvila

Compilation: Carbon Chain Value Voe

Bitcoin was the world's first cryptocurrencyBitcoin is also the most famous cryptocurrency. With the recognition of the legitimacy of assets, the price of Bitcoin has recently hit new highs, among which the United States is the largestinvestmentSurging interest in investing in Bitcoin is one of the main factors driving up its price.

Bitcoin has gone mainstream in the past few months, thanks to moves by big corporations, big investors, banks and payment processors:

Bitcoin is gaining acceptance in the investment community

May 2020:

Paul Tudor Jones, a fund manager, argues that bitcoin should be used as a store of value.

August 2020:

Business software giant MicroStrategy, led by Michael Saylor, announced the purchase of 21,454 Bitcoins for $250 million, which is arguably the "first shot" of big business investing in bitcoin.

November 2020:

Bbillionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller and BlackRock's head of fixed income, Rick Rieder, have made positive comments about bitcoin, both of which see it as an alternative to gold.

January 2021:

Investment bank JPMorgan Chase&Co said it expects bitcoin to reach $146,000 if it becomes a recognized "safe haven."
Inflows into cryptocurrency funds and products have reached a record $1.3 billion a week, and total investment reached a new peak of $34.4 billion, according to data disclosed by asset manager CoinShares.

February 2021:

Electric car maker Tesla has announced a purchase of 1.5 billion dollars in bitcoin and said it will soon accept the currency as a method of payment for vehicles.
Big companies that now own bitcoin include MassMutual, a 169-year-old insurance giant; Galaxy Digital Holdings, an asset manager; Square, the payment company founded by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey; Snapper, a Canadian software company; and Marathon and Argo, both publicly traded miners.

Acceptance of Bitcoin has increased

July 2020:

According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the US banking regulator, banks in the US and the Federal Association of Savings can offer cryptocurrency custodian services

October 2020:

Payment-processing service PayPal allows customers to keep bitcoins in their numbersThe wallet, and supports 26 million merchants on its network that use bitcoin for purchases.

February 2021:

MasterCard has revealed plans to support cryptocurrency payments through its network.

BNY Mellon has announced the launch of a new digital currency custodian unit to help users trade a variety of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, with further expansion in the futureUSDCEtc.Stable currency, as well as toKEN securities and real estate, which could eventually even serve central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Purpose Investments, a Toronto-based asset manager, has launched the world's first bitcoinexchangeTraded Funds (BTCETF).
The parent company of SBI, Japan's largest online brokerage, says it plans to go overseasfinancialThe company establishes cryptocurrency joint venture. SBI CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said the company aims to expand its business and has plans to make cryptocurrencies a core pillar of corporate profitability but declined to identify potential partners.