How PayPal, Visa and BlackRock View Crypto in 2023

Stratified giants like paypal, Visa and Black Rock jumped headfirst into crypto this year. So how did traditional firms view crypto in 2023? You're watching Coindesk Daily, I'm your host, Jens Nay paypal made headlines this year when it became the first major US financial company to launch a US dollar stable coin. The payments infrastructure company that's been around since the late nineties said in its announcement, quote, fully backed, regulated stablecoins have the potential to transform payments in web three and digitally native environments and quote. At the time of release, the company said that Py US D is 100% backed by us dollar deposits, short term us treasuries and similar cash equivalents. Paypal allows users to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin on its apps. Visa has been running experiment after experiment when it comes to crypto and Blockchain technology. The global payment company founded in 1958 acted quickly on the heels of paypal's stablecoin launch on Ethereum and launched its own dollar proxy pilot this year using Selena head of crypto Visa. Kai Sheffield who made desk's most influential list this year said this technology represents a possible game changer for the payments industry and that Visa was in it to compete and to collaborate. Visa has experimented with everything from paying a theory of gas fees using a credit card to working with dos and metaverse tools. And Black Rock filed for sec approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF on June 15th, the filing said quote, the shares are intended to constitute a simple means of making an investment similar to an investment in Bitcoin rather than by acquiring holding and trading Bitcoin directly on a peer to peer or other basis or via a digital asset exchange. And quote around this time, Blackrock, Ceo said Bitcoin could revolutionize the financial system which came as a surprise because he had previously been known to be a skeptic of crypto. The S ECs deadline on Blackrock's Spot. Bitcoin ETF application is January 15th, 2024. Blackrock rival. Fidelity also has a pending spot. Bitcoin ETF with the SEC. Earlier this year, Fidelity investments launched its crypto trading service to retail customers in third six US states. The Fidelity crypto platform previously only available to institutions allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ether in the same app. That's a wrap for this special edition of coin desk daily, get more updates on coindesk.com and we'll see you next time.