With all this talk about digital currency, the largest hesitation investors have with crypto is: will the rest of the world catch up? With as many strides towards legitimacy that crypto has made so far, it still isn’t as easy as walking up to your local Starbucks and offering them some bitcoin cash in exchange for a coffee. So the million dollar question is: Will crypto ever become a legitimate currency?

Money for Millionaires

More like billionaires. Perhaps the most popular crypto-fanatic is Tesla/SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who just recently made headlines for buying Twitter. He has invested over $1.5 billion in Bitcoin–the biggest crypto investment to date–and is purportedly going to start allowing people to buy Teslas with crypto, too. Musk was reported to say at an event that he truly believes in Bitcoin and doesn’t plan on selling his holdings any time soon. Throughout the years, he has been one of crypto’s most famous, and most ardent, advocates.

Other famous investors include Kanye West, Gwyneth Paltrow, and even Paris Hilton. One of the most oft-touted advice with investment is to watch the people who seem to be doing it right. If multitudes of millionaires are parting with their hard-earned money and sinking it into crypto, there must be something to it.

Backed by a Bank

Recently, Goldman Sachs made the news as it allowed for a loan to be made with Bitcoin as collateral. This is revolutionary, and the first step towards major institutions recognizing the validity of digital currencies–especially considering Goldman Sachs has even introduced its own digital assets team. JPMorgan and Wells Fargo are also joining in crypto exposure, to a lesser extent, offering some crypto opportunities to select clients.

Even the Bank of New York Mellon announced in early 2021 that it would “hold, transfer, and issue bitcoin for asset management clients.” This comes along with a slew of other banks that are slowly starting to accept the emergence of Bitcoin and other lesser cryptocurrencies as viable wealth-building tools.

One Nation, Under Crypto

Perhaps more notably, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukraine has resorted to unconventional methods in order to garner funds. They have even started to accept donations from 14 cryptocurrencies–and might even include more.

One of Ukraine’s deputy ministers for digital transformation reported, “Crypto really helped during the first few days because we were able to cover some immediate needs.”

Though many crypto-advocates tout its decentralized nature as one of its biggest advantages until they’re blue in the face, the crisis in Ukraine is evidence that crypto can actually be invaluable in times of trouble.

Above are just a few of the ways that crypto is slowly pushing its way into the world, slowly becoming a normalcy. What better way to get ahead of the curve than to start investing?