‘Buy now pay later’ firm Zip plans to offer crypto trading in Australia and the US

Australian ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) firm Zip is looking to enter the crypto market by offering trading services to users within the next 12 months.

Zip co-founder Peter Gray told Reuters on July 22 that expanding support for crypto trading services and providing a digital wallet was one of top requests from its clients. The co-founder kept his cards close to his chest however and didn’t outlay a specific roadmap or timetable to get there.

“We know our younger generation of customers seek additional products and services that are relevant to them,” Gray said.

The Afterpay competitor serves customers in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. under its American Quadpay unit. The firm recently announced that Quadpay will be rebranded to Zip to increase brand awareness as a multinational company.

If the BNPL firm goes ahead with its crypto plans, Zip has said that it will likely offer this service to Australian and U.S. customers.

According to Yahoo Finance, Zip has a market cap of $4.1 billion. The firm competes in a highly competitive industry amongst giants such as Afterpay, which pioneered the concept and has a significantly greater market cap of $31.4 billion.

Apple announced plans to enter the BNPL sector earlier this month with a service that will allow users of Apple Pay to pay for purchases in four interest free installments. Afterpay this week revealed its first product launch with Westpac bank to offer savings accounts with a flat 1% interest rate.

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Back in April, the Zip co-founder stated that the firm’s short term plans didn’t include offering traditional banking products. He also dropped the first hints about its broader plans noting they are “probably more related to crypto or the ability to buy and sell shares from the app rather than the ability to have a no-coupon savings account.”

According to data from TradingView, Zip stock (Z1P) has a rolling 10 day average volume of $13.98 million, and currently sits at a price of $7.14.