Coronavirus: WHO Warns Against Using Paper Money. Is This A Boom For Crypto?

[Mercury]

During the previous financial crisis, cryptos especially Bitcoin gained a lot of recognition as one of the best ways to store value. In fact, Bitcoin’s value shot up by huge percentages during this time. In essence, it’s fair to say that cryptos have capitalized on some otherwise bizarre situation to gain a larger footing and have eventually become a credible competitor to fiat currencies. The latest of these situations involves a global disaster – the coronavirus.

In a recent statement, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that the coronavirus could end up infecting as much as 60% of the world’s population. That’s not good news especially considering that this disease is spread via both physical touch and inhalation.

Banknotes Could Be Spreading The Virus

According to the statement by WHO, money has become one of the major ways by which the disease is spread. Money can change hands pretty quickly, meaning that a lot of people can touch and get infected via a single currency note. Even scarier is the fact that the virus can remain active on the surface of the currency note for days, and that increases the number of people it can pass through.

The Chinese government has already launched an operation to try to disinfect fiat currency that may have picked up the virus, but that, still, isn’t enough to properly combat the coronavirus menace.

Contactless Payment Technologies

In light of this dangerous situation, the WHO has advised people to avoid use of cash and instead turn to cashless means of payment that don’t require physical contact with the money.

This makes digital money like cryptocurrencies attractive as a means of exchange. In effect, crypto adoption could see a  good spike as people start doing business with them. In this case, Bitcoin, being already the most popular crypto with the highest liquidity stands to gain greatly.

More usage means more trading volume, both at the peer-to-peer level and on exchanges. It also means more demand for the crypto and ultimately higher value. In essence, the coronavirus situation could turn bullish for Bitcoin and other cryptos with the endorsement of the World Health Organization.

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