Facebook’s (NASDAQ:FB) announcement of its own cryptocurrency is “another nail in the coffin for banks,” the CEO of deVere Group said on Friday.
Earlier this week, Facebook announced that it will launch its own cryptocurrency in 2020, igniting further speculation surrounding the future of traditional banks.
The currency will be called Libra and will be available to use on Facebook apps such as WhatsApp and Instagram.
Nigel Green, CEO of one of the world’s largest independent financial advisory organisations, deVere Group, said that “Facebook’s launch into cryptocurrencies tells us two things.”
“First, the role of traditional banks will decline at a quicker rate than many had previously predicted,” Nigel Green commented.
Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency has partnered with PayPal, Mastercard, Visa and Stripe, in addition to others, in order to encourage merchant acceptance of the currency. “If you have cryptocurrency on these payment methods, the purpose of and use for traditional banks will surly shrink,” Nigel Green said.
“Second, tech giants entering the cryptocurrency sector indicates that digital money, as a concept, is fully mainstream and inevitably the way the world is going. This is something we have been arguing for a long time now – despite protestations from financial traditionalists,” the CEO of deVere Group continued.
It is clear that cryptocurrencies and fintech solutions are taking business away from traditional banks. Cryptocurrencies are the future of money, and Facebook’s launch, with its 2.7 billion users, only confirms the growing concern for the future of traditional banking methods.
Facebook said that the currency will target the 1.7 billion people without a bank account. It will be stored in Calibra, a digital wallet, set to be available as an app next year.
Elsewhere in financial technology, news emerged that the peer-to-peer currency exchange platform WeSwap hit £250 million in swapped currency.
As of 04:46 GMT -4 Thursday, shares in Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ:FB) were trading at +1.09%.