The year 2021 will no-doubt be remembered as a pivotal moment in financial history — the year that mainstream and crypto finance finally converged.
The traditional banking and payments giants are now engaging with cryptocurrencies, as well as their underlying blockchain technology, at lightning pace. Markers of this change are everywhere, from crypto application programming interfaces (APIs) and the launch of crypto investment and wealth management offerings, to the successful public listing of crypto-exchange Coinbase. This convergence will have profound implications for the future of global financial markets and monetary systems. It also signifies a remarkable turnaround for crypto-markets, following the long ‘winter’ from 2017 to 2020, when many cryptocurrency prices plummeted.
