‘Buy now, pay later’ firm Zip plans to offer crypto trading in Australia and the US
Australian "buy now, pay later" (BNPL) firm Zip is looking to enter the crypto market by offering trading services to users within the next 12 months.
Zip co-founder Peter Gray told Reuters on July 22 that expanding support for crypto trading services and providing a digital wallet were two of the top requests from its clients. The co-founder kept his cards close to his chest, however, and didn’t outlay a specific roadmap or timetable to get there.
“We know our younger generation of customers seek additional products and services that are relevant to them,” Gray said.
The Afterpay competitor serves customers in Australia, New Zealand and the United States under its American Quadpay unit. The firm recently announced that Quadpay will be rebranded to Zip to increase brand awareness as a multinational company.
If the BNPL firm goes ahead with its crypto plans, Zip said that it will likely offer this service to Australian and U.S. customers.
According to Yahoo Finance, Zip has a market capitalization of $4.1 billion. The firm competes in a highly competitive industry among giants such as Afterpay, which pioneered the concept and has a significantly greater market cap of $31.4 billion.
Apple announced plans to enter the BNPL sector earlier this month with a service that will allow users of Apple Pay to pay for purchases in four interest-free installments. Afterpay this week revealed its first product launch with Australian bank Westpac to offer savings accounts with a flat 1% interest rate.
Related: PayPal increases crypto purchase limits to $100K
Back in April, the Zip co-founder stated that the firm’s short-term plans didn’t include offering traditional banking products. He also dropped the first hints about its broader plans noting they are “probably more related to crypto or the ability to buy and sell shares from the app rather than the ability to have a no-coupon savings account.”
According to data from TradingView, Zip stock has a rolling 10-day average volume of $13.98 million and currently sits at a price of $7.14.