Cryptocurrencies: Governments and Banks Catch Up to the Adoption Curve

Cryptocurrency landscape heats up as financial institutions buy in.

While cryptocurrencies previously stood at the fringe of the payments space, in 2021, institutional interest has increased as governments and banks have invested in the space. The U.S. regulatory agencies have acted as key drivers by creating roadmaps and guidance for companies wanting to get involved with new or existing crypto projects. Meanwhile, certain banking institutions built infrastructure to enable clients to utilize their cryptocurrencies through traditional financial practices, such as providing custodial services, enabling money transfers, and creating lending products. Globally, countries incorporate cryptocurrencies to different extents. Although many countries lag in adoption, the current trajectory of the market is favorable. Mercator believes that payment processors and fintechs should explore ways to incorporate cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions into their current models to remain competitive. A new research report from Mercator Advisory Group, Cryptocurrencies: Governments and Banks Catch Up to the Adoption Curve, examines the current regulatory and financial developments in the cryptocurrency space and highlights trends and strategies companies use to harness this growth.

“Mercator Advisory Group sees the potential in this budding cryptocurrency industry and believes there are use cases that banks, processors, and card programs can take advantage of to drive greater customer satisfaction, greater transaction volume and greater assets under management,” commented Tim Sloane, VP, Payments Innovation, and Director, Emerging Technologies Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group, and author of this report.

This report is 17 pages long and has 6 exhibits.

Companies and other organizations mentioned in this report: Accenture, Anchorage Bank, Bakkt, Bank of Canada, Barclays, Bitstamp, The Block, Chainalysis, CipherTrace, Coinbase, Elliptic, Ethereum, Fidelity, FIS, J.P. Morgan, Nanopay, NYDIG, PayPal, People’s Bank of China, Quorum, Royal Canadian Mint, Signature Bank, Silvergate Bank, Starbucks, Statista, Tassat.