How Cryptocurrency Is Garnering Attention From Traditional Financial Gatekeeper

With cryptocurrencies gaining traction, it should come as no surprise that the gatekeepers of the traditional financial markets are starting to take notice.

As I attend conference calls with C-Suite executives at the largest financial institutions in the world several times per month, I am witnessing the movement continuing to grow. Banks and technology services companies are realizing the real potential of both cryptocurrencies and the underlying distributed ledger technology behind them as important assets for their organization.

Cryptocurrencies have a bit of a troubled past, there’s no denying that. With some of the earliest adopters being drug and arms dealers hidden in the depths of the internet, Bitcoin had a rocky beginning; however, things are drastically shifting in the fintech field for crypto assets and their usage with the public.

Legal Tender

With many of the new coins and tokens coming to market, some are beginning to go back to the traditional roots of the movement: currencies. Not all cryptocurrencies are behaving like speculative “bubbles” or securities. In fact, many are making the push to embrace the “currency” in “cryptocurrency.” Of this specific class of cryptocurrencies, the market has seen projects like the recently announced development of the Sovereign (SOV) token, coming to the public not as securities to be bought and sold like stocks but rather as an actual medium of exchange. Additionally, now Russian officials are considering the release of their very own state-controlled cryptocurrency to function as a medium of exchange: the cryptoruble.

Cryptocurrencies that are actually functionally and legally used as currencies could be the tipping point for banks beginning to shift their attitude towards the growing technology, but haven’t some already done that?