The leading financial services company – JPMorgan Chase & Co. – revealed that its clients have drastically dropped their interest in using cryptocurrencies as a payment method in the past few months.
However, the organization assured that it will still support consumers who want to employ digital assets as a means of payment.
The ongoing crypto winter seems to have affected people’s interest in the asset class. In a recent interview for Bloomberg, Takis Georgakopoulos – Global Head of Payments at JPMorgan – said clients were much more inclined to use cryptocurrencies as a payment tool six months ago:
“We saw a lot of demand for our clients, let’s say, up until six months ago. We see very little right now.”
It is worth noting that back then, Bitcoin’s price was hovering around $40,000, while Ether and many other altcoins were also performing much better than now. By the middle of 2022, though, the global macroeconomic environment changed drastically, and that might have vaporized some of the interest in cryptocurrencies.
Such negative events were the military conflict in Ukraine, the 40-year record inflation rate in the USA, the energy crisis in the European Union, and many more.
In spite of the diminishing excitement, Georgakopoulos assured that JPMorgan will still provide clients with cryptocurrency services. The Wall Street giant believes such tokens could find a place in the future monetary system. In addition, they have become increasingly popular in the gaming sector and the Metaverse, the executive concluded.
The Metaverse – the 3D virtual reality space where participants can interact with digital objects with each other – seems to be a highly intriguing niche for JPMorgan.
Earlier this month, the firm revealed it seeks to hire a “curious and dynamic” leader whose main responsibilities will be to “identify and win new payments opportunities in the Web 3, Crypto, Fintech, & Metaverse industry subvertical.” Tech-savvy individuals with previous experience in the financial sector will be “strongly preferred.”
Prior to that, the Wall Street behemoth released a report titled “Opportunities in the Metaverse,” where it predicted that the virtual reality world could infiltrate every sector in the future and turn into a trillion-dollar market.
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