The buy-now-pay-later company Zip Co revealed its plans to launch cryptocurrency trading services in the US and Australia within the next year. It’s not yet clear which assets will be supported.
According to a Reuters report, the Aussie financial technology company Zip Co is looking to provide its American and Australian clients an opportunity to trade in virtual currencies. The organization further announced that it would implement the move within the next 12 months. Peter Gray – co-founder of Zip Co – explained the decision:
“We know our younger generation of customers seek additional products and services that are relevant to them.”
The top executive pointed out that there is an increasing demand for trading in cryptocurrencies through the use of a native Zip digital wallet. He reminded that about 30% of the Australian adults have a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) account, so the firm would soon offer a broader range of crypto services.
On the other hand, the US residents show greater demand in BNPL options, indicating that Zip Co might launch the product in the States first and then move to Australia. The fintech giant has plans to test the waters with stock trading as well. With that being said, the company is yet to decide which service to enable first. Zip Co did not specify which types of cryptocurrencies would be added in the upcoming months.
Speaking of an increased interest in cryptocurrency services by Australians, a recent research revealed that nearly 20% of the locals own digital assets. On top of it, over 90% of the Aussies have heard of at least one virtual currency. Somewhat expectedly, Bitcoin is the undisputed leader in that statistics and leads the market awareness with 89%. Ethereum ranked second with 23.5%.
The popularity of the primary cryptocurrency was equal among men and women. Nonetheless, male adults were “3x more likely to have heard of other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, EOS, and Litecoin.”
Per the survey, younger generations, especially 18-24-year-olds, are “more likely to be aware of DeFi tokens” with 14.4%, while the overall figure is about 7.8%. 45-54-year-old-citizens, though, seem to have the best knowledge in the field as 54.5% of them gained earnings from their investments.