This week saw several blockchain-related developments in the payments and capital market spaces. In payments, a major global technology company's newly announced remittance system claims to enable faster and less costly cross-border payments. According to the company's website, a counterparty using the system converts its fiat currency into a digital asset that contains settlement instructions; simultaneously, the system converts the digital asset into the second counterparty's chosen fiat currency, and all relevant transaction details are recorded onto a blockchain to complete clearing.
Startup TransferGo has announced a similar system using Ripple that allows for real-time fund transfers from Europe to India, a corridor through which billions of dollars in currency currently flow. Transfers now, including through Swift, take up to three days to complete. For those willing to wait so long, TransferGo says it will allow free transfers through a separate system. In a related announcement, startup Abra says it will now allow EU residents to transfer Euros or other fiat currencies directly to the company, which will then deposit bitcoin to users' digital wallets. This will enable Abra users to sidestep traditional methods to fund their digital wallets. And startup CoinGate is claiming it will make bitcoin transactions faster and cheaper for some 4,000 merchants by utilizing the emerging Bitcoin Lightning Network. These developments in the payments space dovetail with recent estimates that the crypto ATM market will grow to $144.5 million by 2023, up from $16.3 million this year, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 54.7 percent. It is expected that much of this growth will stem from two-way machines that allow users to exchange fiat currency for crypto, and vice versa, with U.S. companies leading the charge.
In capital markets, a major U.S.-based web services provider announced it will add to its platform cryptocurrency trading in bitcoin, ether, litecoin and dogecoin. Additionally, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced it will begin trading ether futures by year end, with the futures' value based on the underlying price indicated on Winkelvoss's crypto exchange, Gemini. According to reports, bitcoin futures' traded volume was up 93 percent between the first and second quarters this year.
To read more about the topics covered in this week's post, see the following:
- How IBM Blockchain World Wire revolutionizes cross-border payments
- TransferGo Opens Payments Corridor to India Using Ripple Tech
- Crypto Wallet Abra Opens Door to More European Users
- CoinGate boosts Lightning Network to expedite Bitcoin adoption
- Report: Crypto ATM Market Expected to Grow to $144.5 Million by 2023
- Yahoo Finance Now Offers Trading of 4 Cryptos on Its iOS App
- Report: CBOE to Launch Ethereum Futures Trading Later This Year
- Goldman Sachs Said to Have Sidelined Plans for Crypto Trading Desk
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.