Government agencies were shut down in March to curb the spread of COVID-19, leading to this most recent backlog of applications upon the closure of 26 State Department passport handling locations in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Only recently that government agencies began reopening their doors to handle in-person requests.
While the State Department’s fortunes have been less than stellar, Bitcoin has fared far better with its continued domination of crypto markets. J.P. Morgan analysts have gone as far as suggesting that it could triple in value and challenge gold following Square and PayPal’s adoption of the cryptocurrency on their respective platforms.
“Even a modest crowding out of gold as an ‘alternative’ currency over the longer term would imply doubling or tripling of the Bitcoin price from here,” said analysts in a research note to investors.
The State Department’s acceptance of the currency points further to this trend of Bitcoin becoming more mainstream. Within the next few years, we could possibly see it become as prevalent as the dollar.
