In big news announced today by Bittrex, they will begin offering fiat pairs on several coins as soon as Thursday.
The official release by Bloomberg can be seen here:
This is very big news as only a handful of exchanges in the world offer fiat pairs on cryptocurrencies, with only a couple being in the US.
Bittrex is based in Washington state and currently has more than 3 million accounts and close to 200 coins listed on its exchange.
Some specifics:
The coins to have fiat pairs initially will be bitcoin, tether, and trueusd.
That may not sound like a lot but they have plans to expand.
The exact quote can be seen here:
"Bittrex is launching fiat trading on Thursday for Bitcoin, Tether and TrueUSD. The service will initially be available only to corporate customers in Washington, California, New York and Montana for regulatory reasons, but the firm said it plans to expand the offering to retail investors eventually."
Only 3 coins will have fiat pairs initially, and those pairs will only be available to select corporate accounts in only 4 states due to regulatory reasons, but there are plans to include the offering to retail investors eventually.
(Source: https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2018/05/Bittrex-Set-to-Add-USDBTC-Pairing/)
This is very big news for several reasons:
For one, Bittrex now becomes one of the few exchanges in the world to offer fiat pairs, which is a very big deal by itself.
They become one of only a couple US based exchanges to have fiat pairs, which is a very big deal as US dollar trading is still one of the largest markets.
Secondly, Bittrex currently has 3 million customer accounts, meaning that if those accounts start becoming more active due to fiat pairs, we could see a huge surge in trading activity.
Thirdly, this is a huge boost of confidence for the entire space. It says that banks are willing to work with crypto exchanges and likely signals that more exchanges are likely to get fiat pairs in the coming months as well.
Finally, this will eventually eliminate a step for users wanting to go from fiat to altcoins, which will make the process cheaper, easier, and more fun for crypto users.
Good news for steem?
It doesn't mean much intitially, but it could possibly be very good news in the medium term.
I can't tell you how many times I have had someone ask me how they can buy some steem with dollars, and then when I described to them the process, their eyes glazed over and they lost interest.
One of the best ways currently is to open a Coinbase account, send dollars to Coinbase, use those to buy bitcoin, open a Bittrex account, send that bitcoin to Bittrex where they then can exchange the bitcoin for steem. Then if they want to put it in their steem wallet they send it from Bittrex to Steemit.
A daunting process for anyone new to crypto!
Eventually getting USD pairs available to retail on Bittrex will eliminate the need for Coinbase altogether, which will only help the steem buying process.
Until we get a way to actually buy steem with fiat dollars, this is the next best thing!
Stay informed my friends.
Image Source:
