Is Western Union adopting cryptocurrencies in the near future? According to a blog post, it seems like the financial services company is going to be entering the foray! WU (Western Union) has revealed that its evaluating cryptocurrencies and will be prepared and “ready” to add support via its platform when necessary.
WU’s Global Money Transfer President Odilon Almeida says that WU’s knowledge and understanding about cross border remittance and international money transfer makes it well positioned to benefit from the adoption of cryptocurrency.
“Western Union is ready today to adopt any kind of currency,” Almeida said. “We already have 130 currencies. If we one day feel like it’s the right strategy to introduce cryptocurrencies to our platform, technology wise, it’s just one more currency. I think cryptocurrency may become one more option of currency or assets around the globe to be exchanged between people and businesses. If that happens we would be ready to launch.”
Businesses like WU, who has been in business for 167 years, have been speculated to be threatened by the emergence of currencies like Bitcoin and other blockchain cryptocurrencies, like XRP (Ripple), for their ability to send funds across borders quickly and cheaply, when compared to products offered by companies like WU.
Western Union’s money transfers can cost as much as $4.50 to send $50.00 and $9.50 to send up to $900.00. Conversely, it costs pennies to send funds via XRP.
WU is standing up to its critics. In its video, the presenter claims WU can benefit from cryptocurrency technology. In the video, the presenter says:
“Western Union is uniquely positioned to connect the cash and digital worlds… With access to billions of bank accounts and over half a million retail agent locations, they are an on-ramp and off-ramp for global money movement.”
Almeida believes that blockchain technology will transform finance and business. He says “Blockchain technology has many applications. It’s all about storing information and sharing information in a very efficient and effective way. This technology I believe has a lot of potential. You’re going to see more and more ways of using the technology platform.”
What do you think? There’s a lot of good news coming into the market for cryptocurrency ecosystem. We know the markets are slumped – we’ve known this for the entire year of 2018. But moves are being made to mass adopt cryptocurrency such as this latest move by WU. Financial institutions are coming into the space. Retail investors are too. We firmly believe we’re early adopters in this space. Have you given up? Or will you persevere? Let us know on our Facebook page.
