James Wester

James Wester

Director, Cryptocurrency and Co-Head of Payments

James helps financial services clients understand the evolving crypto and digital currency space. Drawing on his more than two decades of experience in research, marketing and communications in payments, technology and financial services, James provides the insights and information financial institutions and their technology providers need to build successful products and services around digital assets, cryptocurrencies, and tokens.

Most recently, James managed strategic communications for PayPal supporting the company’s blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies business unit. Prior to PayPal, he served as research director of IDC Financial Insights’ worldwide blockchain and payment strategies practices.

James has been widely quoted in the media including The New York Times, Marketplace (NPR), The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Good Morning America. He has a master’s degree in management information technology from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in English and communications from Drury University.

Javelin’s cryptocurrency practice offers data and practical guidance to technology vendors and financial services providers on cryptocurrencies, digital currencies, tokens, and the technology behind them. The practice helps clients understand how to navigate the market as digital currencies, stablecoins, and digital assets become a more important part of the larger financial services world.

Latest Insights

August, 2023
Javelin Report
The Limits of Crypto and the Rise of Layer 2s

Truly decentralized blockchains attract participation that provides worldwide transparency and reinforces why they were developed in the first place. But blockchain networks also h...

July, 2023
Javelin Report
Building a Better Stablecoin

Unlike digital dollars, each stablecoin is unique when they are cryptographically minted and stored on a distributed ledger. Features such as programmability and near instantaneous...

June, 2023
Javelin Report
Apple Savings and the Emerging Personal Payment Stack

Apple has launched Savings, a component of its financial ecosystem that positions it to become a personal payment stack service provider. The ability it has to keep customers withi...

Events

September 11, 2023 | 08:00 AM to 05:35 PM (EST)
See 70+ cutting-edge technologies from startups to established firms. The most live fintech demos yo...
August, 2022
Join experts from CryptoFi, Finastra, Chainalysis, Javelin Strategy & Research, and Strategic Resour...
November, 2022
The payments ecosystem is evolving. The Javelin and Mercator analysts joined forces to bring their c...

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