At the recent Consensus conference in New York City, there was a lot of enthusiasm about more institutional buy-in for cryptocurrency in 2019.
At least some of that buzz was around advertising by eBay, where a billboard trumpeted “Virtual currency. It’s happening on eBay.”
Turns out it’s not, and that may have been at least part of what spurred a meteoric rise of Bitcoin to over $8000 per coin in the past few days – though invested parties are hoping that’s not the case. At press time, Bitcoin is trading just slightly under that $8000 mark.
Enthusiasts could be forgiven for projecting such bullishness in the wake of eBay’s vague and possibly duplicitous ad, given the amount of money the e-commerce giant handles.
However, eBay wasn’t the only company to burst the crypto fans’ bubble in clarifying its position on Bitcoin.
A Bloomberg piece shows how TD Ameritrade, a brokerage with $1.3 trillion in assets, currently only allows most traders to practice cryptocurrency trading with the training wheels on.
TD Ameritrade’s Papermoney program sets up practice trades where no actual money is put on the line. Investors with over $25,000 can try their hand at actual trading of Bitcoin futures under a separate program.
“Currently we’re not (further embracing cryptocurrency.) We have what we call paperMoney, which is what our clients can try for trading strategies,” Sunayna Tuteja, head of digital assets at TD Ameritrade, said in an interview, according to a recent Bloomberg report. “It was a simulation. So there was no actual execution.”
Is eBay just jerking people around? (and what about TD Ameritrade?)
Many average investors would say there’s a kind of a threshold for deliberately ginning up cryptocurrency rumors, only to withdraw the commercial hand and say, “psych!”
To many, eBay crossed this line by advertising something that seems to be so clearly indicating a move toward cryptocurrency.
“It is Like an Elephant Hiding Behind a Skinny Tree …Aha Aha Aha !…” posts user Lilit & the Sun Shine Band in response to Cointelegraph reporting on the issue.
Despite some setbacks, many project that lots of these platforms will embrace crypto, just a little bit further down the line. What do you think? Drop us a comment!
