The cryptocurrency industry continues to hit new milestones in terms of adoption as it is now getting recognized by major platforms on the internet. In the latest episode of mainstream usage for crypto, Google Finance users will now be able to get a quick rundown of the top cryptocurrency prices with just one click.
Per recent reports, Google Finance has added cryptocurrency prices to its finance.google.com domain. A separate section titled “Crypto” can now be seen in the “Compare Markets” category in addition to the conventional stock and currency markets section. The new section displays pricing information for various digital currencies like including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).
The move is quite significant considering the fact that millions of Google Finance users will now get a closer look at the cryptocurrency market. The event also hints that the internet giant might be slowly changing its tune regarding cryptocurrencies.
Bad history with Cryptocurrencies
Google’s parent company Alphabet is also the foundation behind popular video streaming platform YouTube. The platform has randomly continued to censor content related to cryptocurrencies, even those that were educational.
Major crypto media publishers like CoinDesk and Cointelegraph even had their YouTube channels suspended at one point, only to find out that they were not in violation of YouTube’s terms of service. The channels were later restored.
The growth of the cryptocurrency market over the past years has drawn in mainstream attention. The involvement of institutional traders and major corporations in this emerging market helped push the total market capitalization of the industry to new highs beyond $1.7 trillion in February.
The likes of Tesla, Mastercard, and PayPal actively investing in cryptocurrencies have boosted the industry’s credibility compared to what it was just a few years back.
Google at one point had cracked-down on cryptocurrency-related advertising and updated its financial services-related ad policies to ban any advertising about cryptocurrency-related content, including initial coin offerings (ICOs), wallets, and trading advice.
Google’s concerns weren’t too erroneous. Apart from the pressure from regulators, there were also multiple reports of cryptojacking malware attacks that stealthily mine cryptocurrency by stealing the physical resources of a victim’s hardware facilitated by malicious apps on Google’s play store.
However, crypto-related crimes have reduced significantly in 2020, and regulators have also called for clearer guidelines on digital assets. This could be the core reason why Google might be reconsidering their stance regarding cryptocurrencies.
