The Interchange: 2020 is on pace to be a banner year for legacy fintech digital asset developments

2020 is shaping up to be a banner year for legacy fintech interest into digital assets, as some of the world's largest payment companies have accelerated the strategic desire to expand crypto capabilities or publicly market the intention to explore new digital asset offerings. While this was a theme we pointed out in The Block Research 2020 Outlook to watch for this year, the caliber of names and interest building within fintech and directed towards the space has certainly exceeded what I thought we would see this year.

Headlined by a report back in July that PayPal is exploring crypto buying and selling capabilities to its 300 million users and has taken "unilateral and tangible steps to further develop its capabilities in this area," yesterday's news that Mastercard has launched a “virtual and custom" testing platform that will allow central banks to evaluate digital currency systems and that Square is forming a consortium to widen access to crypto technology by creating a library that pools members' patents are just two of the latest examples of a year that has been chock-full of notable movements further into digital assets by the fintech and financial services industry at large.