Bitcoin's Popularity Sees Surge in Marijuana and Video Game Transactions During Coronavirus Lockdown
The coronavirus-induced lockdown has influenced an increased use case of Bitcoin. Sales of video games and cannabis using Bitcoin have seen a significant rise during the lockdown. The pandemic has revealed consumers’ priorities, as online sales of general digital products saw a decline, while video gamers and marijuana users have increasingly turned to Bitcoin during the virus outbreak.
Consumers are stockpiling games and weed
Revenues for cannabis and video game sales using Bitcoin experienced a 50 percent rise among the 100 e-commerce merchants surveyed by Blockonomics. The survey revealed that marijuana orders increased as people are purchasing weeds more than ever, with revenue increased over 50 percent. Similarly, the lockdown has turned consumers towards video games as a way of distraction. The research does not show whether the individuals buying marijuana were the same people purchasing video games. However, experience indicates that there might be a slight overlap. With the novel coronavirus outbreak causing people to self-isolate themselves, video games are big winners. Sony, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Nintendo are four leading video gaming companies seeing their stock price go up in a big way.
Nutritional supplements and web-hosting are the other two businesses that also experienced a rise in Bitcoin-based sales. Nutritional supplements experienced a rise in revenue of over 50% as people continue looking for alternative ways to stay healthy (perhaps as a response to empty food shelves at grocery stores). Web-hosting services also experienced a remarkable rise in revenue.
Although everyone is staying at home, this has not translated into increased sales of ordinary digital products. This indicates that people put a greater focus on purchasing essential physical commodities that are at threat of missing in a potential supply-chain slowdown. Fear of COVID-19 pandemic sent Americans into buying essentials such as flour, bread, hand sanitizers, and toilet papers to survive an extended period of isolation. They also purchased cannabis and video games like it were the necessities.
Nearly 50 percent of the e-commerce store owners surveyed disclosed that they were firm believers of Bitcoin, and they decided to hold on to any Bitcoin they received during this crisis, while more than 10 percent mentioned that they were continuing to purchase more Bitcoins.
Bitcoin set to recover from the coronavirus pandemic-triggered global financial crisis
Although the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on Bitcoin, not everything has been negative. The price of Bitcoin was hard hit from the beginning of this year until early April. All this has been occurring as assets from currencies to bonds and stocks have been struggling because of the coronavirus crisis. Bitcoin breakdown over past weeks reflected the panic, which dominated all asset classes, whether they are stock, bonds, gold, etc. Lower lows and lower highs are in place for the leading cryptocurrency, but it is set to consolidate and repair the technical damage. So, as marijuana users and video gamers continue to part with their Bitcoins, e-commerce store owners focus on holding their BTC. This phenomenon might have led to the recent increase of 102% value of Bitcoin over the past month and a half.
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