Late last month, the big rumor in crypto was that Amazon was preparing to accept bitcoin.
On July 22, the company posted a job listing for a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead.”
The wording of the ad fueled speculation that Amazon would soon begin accepting bitcoin – which jumped 14% on the news.
Amazon quickly squashed the rumor, saying it had no plans to accept bitcoin.
“Notwithstanding our interest in the space, the speculation that has ensued around our specific plans for cryptocurrencies is not true,” said an Amazon spokesperson.
Despite Amazon’s denial, we believe Big Tech is about to make a big splash into the crypto space…
The first reason involves a trend Daily readers are familiar with: Mass adoption.
We’re seeing billions of institutional capital flow into cryptocurrencies. And hundreds of millions of retail investors are adding crypto their portfolios, too.
But there’s another huge trend happening under the radar. It’s something you won’t read about in the mainstream press. (We’ve been following this trend since early last year.)
Here’s the proof that it’s happening… And that it’s readying crypto and bitcoin for primetime exposure…
Leaving for Greener Pastures
While Amazon denied it’s preparing to accept crypto right now… we know from the job ad that acquiring talent from blockchain and crypto projects is a top priority.
But instead of taking their talents to Wall Street or Silicon Valley… some of the brightest stars in fintech are actually leaving those bastions of capitalism for crypto startups.
Here are a few of the big names heading to crypto…
-
Damien Vanderwilt, Co-president and head of global markets, Galaxy Digital
Vanderwilt is a 20-year Goldman Sachs veteran.
Since he joined Galaxy Digital this past January, the firm started trading crypto futures with Goldman… marking the first time the bank has traded with a digital assets firm since opening up its crypto trading desk in May.
-
Melissa Strait, Chief Compliance Officer, Coinbase
Strait spent five years at payment processor Stripe, where she eventually became global head of Financial Crimes.
She joined Coinbase in February and is responsible for the company’s global compliance programs, including anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) rules.
-
Brian Brooks, CEO, Binance.US
Brooks is a former Coinbase exec, and even served a year as acting U.S. Comptroller of Currency (OCC) under President Trump. (The OCC regulates all U.S. banks. It’s one of the most powerful federal agencies in the United States.)
Brooks joined Binance.US in May. And he’s currently overseeing development of Binance Smart Chain, a DeFi app that he claims will become “the App Store of crypto.”
-
Allison Gott, Vice president of business development, Paxos
Gott spent eight years as senior vice president of Citadel Securities, a U.S. market-maker.
She joined Paxos in June. The blockchain development firm just raised $300 million in funding from investors like Bank of America, Coinbase Ventures, and PayPal Ventures.
-
Roger Younan, Crypto CFO, Robinhood
Younan was formerly a senior manager of finance, insights and data science at Amazon.
He became Robinhood Crypto’s CFO in June. Crypto makes up about 17% of Robinhood’s trading platform revenues. So it’s an important segment. And it has plenty of room for more growth.
And the exodus isn’t just happening at the C-Suite level. Crypto firms are also recruiting rank and file.
A spokesperson for financial firm Fidelity – which has $10.4 billion assets under management – reports that mainstream crypto coverage is bringing in a broader set of candidates.
And crypto exchange Kraken’s COO David Ripley says that his company’s “demand for staff continues to outpace the supply” of candidates.
Some companies are even offering to pay bonuses and salary in their own tokens. For example, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said its employees who held onto their Binance (BNB) tokens have “reached financial freedom.”
(BNB has grown as much as 2,868% over the past 12 months. Enough to turn every $1,000 into $29,683.)
It’s all to attract the biggest minds – and money – from Wall Street and Silicon Valley.
The fact that crypto projects are attracting the biggest and brightest names in fintech is a testament to the growth of the industry.
These are some of the smartest people in the world. And they wouldn’t be leaving Wall Street and Silicon Valley unless they believed the pastures in crypto were greener.
What Does it All Mean?
The Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals, founded by Ric Edelman, predicts: “Top talent from law, engineering, and financial services will leave their positions (and often, careers) to take (or create) new ones in the blockchain and digital asset space. It’ll snowball to conspicuous levels.”
Look, the smartest folks from traditional finance wouldn’t be leaving high-paying Wall Street jobs for crypto unless they thought the gains in crypto would be even bigger.
So it’s no surprise A-list talent from the traditional finance is heading to the crypto space. There are few industries that offer that type of growth potential.
So even if Amazon isn’t ready to accept bitcoin as payment yet… don’t be so sure it won’t happen in the not-so-distant future.
That’s why Daily editor Teeka Tiwari believes Amazon will have no choice but to eventually accept bitcoin:
While Amazon might be denying its intention to integrate bitcoin… if you examine the economic incentives at stake you can’t come to any other conclusion than it’ll eventually have to integrate bitcoin into its payment and platform networks.
Long story short, it’s no longer a question of “if” Amazon will adopt bitcoin. It’s a question of “when” Amazon will adopt bitcoin.
Adoption is clearly underway, as a number of financial titans have entered the space…
Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Citi, State Street, and Wells Fargo are offering crypto funds to their clients. Mastercard and Visa are involved with crypto in multiple ways.
Over a dozen firms, including big names like First Trust, VanEck, and WisdomTree, have filed for a bitcoin ETF. ProFunds just launched the first bitcoin mutual fund last week. And 30-plus publicly traded companies own bitcoin.
Don’t bet against the smart money. Wall Street, via top companies, institutions, and even leaders, is embracing crypto.
So ignore the day-to-day volatility and focus on the bigger picture.
As crypto moves towards mass adoption, the window of opportunity will narrow.
To get ahead of the next leg up in crypto adoption… start with a small stake in bitcoin.
Regards,
|
Grant Wasylik
Analyst, Palm Beach Daily
P.S. The current flood of money and talent pouring into crypto is fueling a $30 trillion blockchain revolution…
And as more of these banks and institutions embrace and expand crypto access to their customers, their underlying blockchain projects will become even more lucrative…
Click here to learn more about the “No. 1 Investment of the Decade” and how it could be as rewarding as buying Microsoft in the ‘80s… Amazon in the ‘90s… and bitcoin in 2010.