US crypto firms expand offerings as Trump takes over

Kraken Pay is only the latest product in the growing crypto payments landscape

January 29, 2025 04:30 pm

Sergei Elagin/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

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Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan last week said that the US banking industry will have to adapt their businesses to allow for crypto payments, should regulations progress.

“If the rules come in and make it a real thing that you can actually do business with, you’ll find that the banking system will come in hard on the transactional side of it,” Moynihan told CNBC at the World Economic Forum.

Crypto exchange Kraken today launched a new payments platform — Kraken Pay, which allows customers to transfer assets directly from their exchange accounts. Kraken Pay supports more than 300 fiat currencies and crypto tokens. Sending assets is free, but converting assets from one currency to another when making a transfer will come with fees.

“Crypto isn’t just the future of finance — it’s the now,” Kraken global head of consumer Mark Greenberg said. “We’re eliminating the barriers of slow payments and outrageous fees while bringing real-world utility to your fingertips.”

Kraken Pay is only the latest product in the growing crypto payments landscape.

Payment service Venmo dipped its toe in the crypto pool back in 2021. Ripple says its payments product is getting a facelift this year.

The payments space, from cross-border and remittances to peer-to-peer transactions, has long been an area crypto fans insist is ripe for disruption.

With more crypto-friendly federal regulators in charge and increased retail and institutional investor interest, 2025 just may be the year we really start to see this sector of crypto take off.

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