Walmart aims to enable customers to ‘derive value’ from cryptocurrencies

The cryptocurrency market, in particular how consumers conduct transactions, will have a major impact on the future of finance, according to Suresh Kumar, global chief technology officer of retail giant Walmart. He reaffirmed the company’s support for the industry, saying that customers should be able to buy products and “derive value” from digital assets.

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Kumar predicted that the asset class would be “majorly” disrupted by people using cryptocurrencies to pay for both physical and digital products and services.

“I think that there are three major areas of disruption. Crypto falls in sort of the middle of it. I have talked before about the way in which customers are getting inspired and discovering products. That is changing.”

The executive went on to say that the Metaverse and various social media platforms could boost cryptocurrency’s popularity by continuing to focus on such customers.

Kumar predicted that the use of digital assets would transform how people conduct financial settlements, and Walmart would strive to give its customers access to “friction-free” cryptocurrency options.

Walmart taking baby steps 

With more than 2.2 million employees worldwide, the leading Arkansas-headquartered multinational retail company is the largest private employer in the world. Although it doesn’t accept cryptocurrency payments directly, customers can use bitcoin to buy Amazon gift cards at Bitrefill and then use them at Walmart.

Some reports claim that the major hypermarket chain accepted Litecoin (LTC) as a payment method in September 2021. The rumors created a lot of enthusiasm in the market and raised the value of the coin. Nevertheless, it turned out to be fake news, which dramatically increased market volatility.

A month later, Walmart made its first significant foray into the cryptocurrency realm by working with Coinstar to install 200 bitcoin ATMs throughout the company’s US-based retail locations. It made clear that it intended to eventually have 8,000 of such machines.

Walmart submitted paperwork to American regulators at the beginning of this year to introduce NFTs, its own cryptocurrency, and join the Metaverse.