From money laundering tool to reserve currency, why has Bitcoin suddenly become popular in the mainstream media?

Earlier this week, China’s largest mainstream media outlet, People’s Daily, defined Bitcoin as digital gold, which some saw as further validation of Bitcoin’s legitimacy. Suddenly, investors and mainstream media around the world are beginning to recognize and adopt Bitcoin.

Bitcoin will replace reserve currencies

In the past few months, Bitcoin has received more mainstream media coverage than during its peak in 2013.

Media companies and investment firms in countries such as South Korea, India, Australia and Japan have begun discussing the possibility of Bitcoin as an alternative currency and financial system in the future beyond some kind of reserve currency.

Recently, ABC News, the national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, reported that if Bitcoin maintains its current exponential growth, it could replace reserve currencies such as the US dollar in the next 10 years.

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Bitcoin experts including BitGo engineer Jameson Lopp also suggested that investors and traders should consider Bitcoin’s dominance index against currencies such as the U.S. dollar based on the global M1 supply, rather than altcoins in the cryptocurrency market.

Lopp pointed out that currently, Bitcoin accounts for about 0.14% of the global M1 money supply, and it still has a long way to go to surpass the reserve currency. However, if the idea and concept of Bitcoin surpassing existing government currencies and becoming an alternative financial network becomes the focus of investors, then Bitcoin supporters should compare Bitcoin's dominance index with the M1 money index.

However, the fact that mainstream media (such as ABC News) and Bitcoin experts (such as Jameson Lopp) are bringing the M1 Money Index into the discussion of Bitcoin is a positive sign that Bitcoin is moving towards mainstream use.

Bitcoin is gaining rapid adoption in Japan

In Japan, mainstream adoption of Bitcoin is on the horizon, with major airlines, electronics retailers and some prominent and influential companies accepting Bitcoin as a digital currency, not just digital gold, but also an investment vehicle.

If Japanese companies' plans go as planned, more than 300,000 merchants may soon accept Bitcoin, and tens of thousands of convenience stores will begin to accept Bitcoin as an official payment method.

BITPoint has reached a cooperation with Peach, Japan’s largest low-cost airline, to jointly provide Bitcoin payments. The company’s president Genki Oda said in an interview:

“We are in discussions with a retail company. Through a company that provides payment terminals to stores, we can increase the use of Bitcoin overnight. This is much easier than talking to individual retailers. We are also in talks with a large convenience store operator.”

The demand and optimism for Bitcoin as a long-term safe-haven asset and digital currency is rapidly rising around the world. The only technical issue to be solved is the issue of Bitcoin scaling, thereby reducing transaction fees to promote mainstream adoption of Bitcoin.