Bitcoin Popularity in New Zealand - Ultimate Guide

Bitcoin is growing in popularity thanks to its latest bull cycle, which promoted its status as an investment of choice for both retail and institutional investors. The huge popularity of Bitcoin was also reflected in the growing number of cryptocurrencies (over 20,000) on the crypto market as well as the blockchain-based solutions, and we're even seeing better regulations regarding crypto in general.

New Zealand is also no exception to the worldwide crypto craze, especially for Bitcoin mining. In this article, we will take a look at the main factors which boosted Bitcoin's popularity in the world as well as in New Zealand.  

Cross-Border Transactions

One of the major reasons why Bitcoin is popular for cross-border transactions in New Zealand and the rest of the world is the low transaction fees that are associated with cryptocurrency. Namely, Bitcoin was developed with the main goal of being used as a payment method for the transfer of funds over the Internet.

It was created during the financial crisis in 2009, which is why it is powered by decentralized blockchain technology. The blockchain network is essentially a distributed ledger where the blocks of transactions are processed and added to the network. Each incoming transaction and its data are viewable to every participant in the network.  

Because the blockchain network is peer-to-peer based and distributed on a cluster of computers, the processing time is much shorter compared to a decentralized financial system. At the same time, the transaction fees are also significantly lower, which is another major reason why Bitcoins transactions are quite popular among users that want to send and receive funds online safely and quickly.

Business Support

Whether your business is located in New Zealand or it's an online shop, Bitcoin allows you to easily receive payments from a worldwide audience. It is another factor that promoted the popularity of Bitcoin in New Zealand. You only need a Bitcoin wallet in order to receive the BTC, and that is easy to do, particularly for online businesses.  

For example, you can find many Bitcoin casino sites that accept BTC payments and provide a variety of casino games to their online members. As we know, online casinos have always worked to include the latest innovations in their platforms, and accepting BTC further proves that many businesses are open to Bitcoin's integration in their establishments. Some of the famous businesses that accept BTC are Bookabach, Abalone Thai, Electrolux NZ, and many other brands.  

Bitcoin Halving

Bitcoin halving is a significant event that was programmed to occur in the network roughly every four years, or more specifically, when the number of blocks reaches 630,000. Satoshi Nakamoto (the creator of Bitcoin) capped the entire supply of Bitcoin to 21 million and designed the event as a way to control the inflation rate by halving the reward for the miners.  

As the supply of BTC is restricted, and already 18.5 million BTC are in circulation, the price of Bitcoin rises even further, with each passing halving. In other words, due to the decentralized blockchain network, the market demand and supply are the main forces behind Bitcoin's value. When the market supply is on a lower level compared to the demand, which has steadily increased over the years, the price rises accordingly.  

The first time that the halving happened, very few BTC supporters were aware of the halving's impact in November 2012. The price of Bitcoin spiked to $11, while the reward that the miners were cut in half to 25 BTC. With the subsequent halving, the price surged to $664.44, and the latest halving was the one that set the crypto world on fire. It occurred in May 2020; the reward was diminished to 6.25 BTC while the price increased from $8,500 to $9,500.

Although it's expected after the halving for Bitcoin to enter a bull cycle, no one could have predicted the latest bull market phase, which has swept up not only the Bitcoin market but also the crypto market as well.  

Over the course of the following months, Bitcoin's price has increased by 170% and resulted in a price higher than $20,000 by the end of 2020. Moreover, due to the incredible business support, the price of Bitcoin continued to surge and reached a record-breaking high price of around $65,000 in April 2021. So, one of the primary results of the incredible interest of institutional and retail investors was the money-making potential of Bitcoin.