A former JP Morgan executive has made outspoken comments regarding the impact of the cryptocurrency sector on the world’s major banks and financial institutions. Salvador Casquero, who has also performed high-level roles for Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and financial services giant La Caixa, went as far as saying the banks have already lost the race to crypto. The writing, according this top executive at least, is on the wall.
As Goldman Sachs, BlackRock, Mastercard and many of the world’s largest financial institutions make moves to embed crypto into their business models, it seems increasingly clear that blockchain is here to stay. As regular Crypto Traders Pro readers will note, the response of the banking giants has sometimes been contradictory, with Larry Fink and Jamie Dimon just two executives who seem unsure how best to address the inconvenient truth that crypto lays at their door.
Financial institutions seem unwilling to publicly acknowledge the paradigm shift which crypto promises, but at the same time are making clear moves to strategically align their positions with the new reality. It’s a fine balance, and one which Casquero says could end in disaster for the banks.
Unlike large and unwieldy banking institutions, crypto businesses are “small, fast and flexible” and “optimized in terms of flow, resources, business models and technology,” Casquero says. Rather than trying to do it all, cryptos are “tailored towards very specific products.” Where fiat is big and cumbersome, crypto is agile and quick to respond to a fast-changing world.
One aspect of the shift is that the cash economy is contracting in most of the world’s largest economies. From North America to Europe, and China to South Korea, consumers are coming to rely much less on cash and more on card and online transactions. In this context, crypto is often cheaper, faster, more efficient and more secure. The use-case is becoming clearer and clearer, and it’s beginning to show in the bottom line. Ant Financial, which runs Alipay, the Chinese fintech giant, is now worth over $150 billion. Binance is more profitable than Deustsche Bank, Germany’s largest bank. Beneath the headlines, the trend is clear. Crypto is here to stay, and there’s nothing the banks can do.
