TL;DR Breakdown:
- About 5.5 million users of the mobile payment app Lydia can now trade cryptocurrency and stocks.
- The payment app partnered with Bitpanda to offer more financial products to users.
- The collaborations align with Bitpanda’s plans to accelerate digital asset adoption in France and Europe.
The Paris-based mobile payment platform Lydia has joined the cryptocurrency bandwagon. According to reports on Monday, the French startup will now offer its users the option for trading dozens of cryptocurrencies and other assets, following a new partnership with brokerage firm Bitpanda.
Lydia to allow crypto and stock trading
Lydia has a user base of over 5 million people who are mostly sending, receiving, and saving money on the payment app. However, the development today will expose them to more features and financial products. Amongst other things, the users can now invest in Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and other cryptos, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs), precious metals, and foreign stocks.
Meanwhile, the collaboration with Lydia further solidifies Bitpanda’s expansion plan to France and Europe at large. The Australian brokerage firm viewed France as a key market and planned on setting up a team in Paris to drive the growth. “This collaboration is fully aligned with our mission to bring digital assets into mainstream adoption and to improve investment literacy in Europe and beyond,” says Eric Demuth, Bitpanda co-founder.
In April 2019, Bitpanda reportedly became the first crypto brokerage company to receive a Payment Services Directive Two (PSD2) license, which is basically a permit for their offerings within Europe.
Keeping up with crypto
Lydia’s support for cryptocurrency comes at a time where cryptos are seeing a huge level of interest from both retail and institutional investors. This is probably the same reason other payment giants have ventured into cryptocurrency.
Jack Dorsey’s mobile payment app Cash App already allows its users the option of buying and selling Bitcoin (BTC). Last year, PayPal initially rolled out its cryptocurrency service for users in American, which was later extended this year to include customers in the United Kingdom.
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