Crypto Firms Expand Offerings as Trump Administration Takes Over

US crypto firms are expanding their offerings as the Trump administration takes over, with a growing number of companies launching new payment platforms and services. This trend is being driven by a combination of factors, including increased regulatory clarity, growing retail and institutional investor interest, and the potential for crypto to disrupt traditional payment systems.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan recently stated that the US banking industry will need to adapt its businesses to accommodate crypto payments if regulations progress. Moynihan told CNBC at the World Economic Forum that "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."

Crypto exchange Kraken has launched a new payments platform called Kraken Pay, which allows customers to transfer assets directly from their exchange accounts. Kraken Pay supports more than 300 fiat currencies and crypto tokens, and sending assets is free, although converting assets from one currency to another when making a transfer will come with fees. Mark Greenberg, Kraken's global head of consumer, said that "crypto isn’t just the future of finance — it’s the now," and that Kraken Pay is eliminating the barriers of slow payments and outrageous fees while bringing real-world utility to users' fingertips.

Kraken Pay is just one of many new products in the growing crypto payments landscape. Payment service Venmo dipped its toe in the crypto pool back in 2021, and Ripple has announced that its payments product will be getting a facelift this year. The payments space, from cross-border and remittances to peer-to-peer transactions, has long been an area that crypto enthusiasts believe is ripe for disruption.

With more crypto-friendly federal regulators in charge and increased retail and institutional investor interest, 2025 could be the year that we start to see the crypto payments sector really take off. As the industry continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these new payment platforms and services shape the future of finance.