Economic Downturn Reignites Crypto Interest Among Mainstream Consumers and Investors as Inflation Hedge and Payments Solution
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – May 27, 2020 – i2c Inc., a leading provider of digital payment and open banking technology announced its partnership with Crypto.com as its crypto card product has begun shipping in 31 countries across Europe. This expansion follows successful and agile integrations between the two companies over the past three years in Singapore, the U.S. and most, recently, the United Kingdom, making Crypto.com’s card program the most widely available globally. Consumers now have access to an end-to-end crypto ecosystem consisting of a crypto payments card, a wallet app to buy, sell and earn crypto as well as cashback rewards as one spends.
Interest in digital currencies is increasing as the global economic crisis and resulting government stimulus packages push national debt to unprecedented levels, driving a concern around a post-pandemic recession caused by hyper-inflation. A Crypto.com-sponsored research study from The Economist Intelligence Unit reports, for the first time, mainstream consumers in cryptocurrency, with 20 percent of respondents who do not use crypto today reporting they plan to begin using it in the next year.
According to the study, consumers see online payments as the primary role for digital currencies (34 percent). While overall knowledge of established cryptocurrencies remains low, over half of consumers (54 percent) report they would consider using new digital currencies issued and backed by governments. Investors see crypto as a hedge against inflation and a long-term investment, especially since the recent ‘halving’ of Bitcoin has driven its value above the $10,000 threshold and added $13B to the crypto market.
“People are curious and optimistic about the future of cryptocurrency which comes at a pivotal time when trust in financial markets is wavering and people are turning to digital currencies as a clear plan B to traditional financial structures,” said Kris Marszalek, CEO of Crypto.com. “We selected i2c three years ago in anticipation of our global strategy because of the integration it has with banks and card networks worldwide. i2c’s cloud-based platform powers a customized, ‘plug-n-play’ solution so we didn’t have to start from scratch in each market integrating into multiple processors.”
“The current economic climate of uncertainty is only reinforcing the trend among consumers for flexible financial solutions that are accessible and easy to use, and map to their on-demand, digital lives,” said Jim McCarthy, President of i2c Inc. “The strong enrollment response in Europe to the Crypto.com payments solution indicates consumers are ready for an alternative to traditional money systems that puts them squarely in control of their finances and investments. i2c is proud to be helping Crypto.com bring optional payment solutions to the world.”
About Crypto.com
Crypto.com was founded in 2016 on a simple belief: it’s a basic human right for everyone to control their money, data and identity. With over 2 million users on its platform today, Crypto.com provides a powerful alternative to traditional financial services, turning its vision of “cryptocurrency in every wallet” into reality, one customer at a time. Crypto.com is built on a solid foundation of security, privacy and compliance and is the first cryptocurrency company in the world to have CCSS Level 3, ISO27001:2013 and PCI:DSS 3.2.1, Level 1 compliance. Crypto.com is headquartered in Hong Kong with a 250+ strong team. Find out more by visiting https://crypto.com.
About i2c Inc.
i2c is a global provider of highly-configurable banking and payment solutions. Using i2c's proprietary building block technology, clients can easily create and manage a comprehensive set of solutions for credit, debit, prepaid, lending and more, quickly and cost-effectively. i2c delivers unparalleled flexibility, agility, security and reliability from a single, global SaaS platform. Founded in 2001, and headquartered in Silicon Valley, i2c's next-generation technology supports millions of users in more than 200 countries/ territories and across all time zones.
For more information, visit i2cinc.com and follow us at @i2cinc.