Zip Co Ltd, the Australian-based Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) firm, wants to give users a chance to trade in cryptocurrencies, a Reuters report says.
Zip has said it plans to offer the service in the next year in the U.S. — due to the large market drive in fourth quarter growth for the company there — along with Australia.
Cofounder Peter Gray said the reason for the new offering was that crypto trading with the Zip digital wallets had been one of the most requested new features by users.
“We know our younger generation of customers seek additional products and services that are relevant to them,” Gray told Reuters.
Meanwhile, blockchain startups saw a massive influx of funding in the second quarter, topping $4 billion, according to CNBC.
Fundraising for companies in that industry was up more than 50 percent from the previous quarter.
The largest funding round for a blockchain company was from a $440 million investment in digital currency and payments firm Circle, which also recently rolled out its plans to go public via a $4.5 billion SPAC merger.
Then there was Ledger, which saw $380 million raised. Ledger specializes in hardware wallets for people to store their digital currencies. Ledger CEO Pascal Gauthier said recently that major industries were now getting into crypto.
Also, J.P. Morgan Chase is now reportedly letting advisers execute crypto trades for more clients, a report from Cointelegraph says.
Someone familiar with the move said this means the clients seeking financial advice will now have opportunities to invest in crypto.
That includes the clients managed by financial advisors, retail investors using the trading app and clients serviced by the private bank.
The move comes after another report finding that many J.P. Morgan clients have come to see cryptocurrency as an asset class. This has come a long way since CEO Jamie Dimon called crypto “fraud” back in 2017, Cointelegraph reports.
