Key Takeaway:

• OnePay, which is supported by Walmart, is working on the incorporation of Bitcoin and Ethereum trading and custody services into its mobile banking app.
• The new feature enables users to convert digital assets to U.S. dollars immediately and use them to make in-store purchases and pay using a credit card.
• The backend is being provided by fintech infrastructure provider ZeroHash, which is similar to institutional designs at Morgan Stanley and Interactive Brokers.

Walmart is enthusiastically increasing its financial technology presence by introducing digital asset utility to its huge retail ecosystem. The retail giant is transitioning out of the conventional banking business through its majority-owned fintech business, OnePay, to provide a gateway between cryptocurrency and consumer spending.

OnePay Closes the Cryptocurrency and Commerce Gap

The Walmart partner Ribbit Capital has created OnePay, which is a joint venture that is planned to launch cryptocurrency trading and custodial services by the close of 2025. This integration is a major change that the platform has already achieved having already become one of the top-five finance applications on the Apple App Store. OnePay is launching Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as its existing range of high-yield savings, debit cards, and its buy now, pay later offerings, which puts the company in a position to become a one-stop, one-app shopping experience to the American customer.

The most striking feature of this rollout is that it has a smooth conversion mechanism. In opposition to the old-fashioned methods when it could require days to transfer money to a bank account, OnePay users will have the opportunity to convert their crypto assets into U.S. dollars in the app in almost real-time. Such money can be immediately redeemed in Walmart checkouts or charged to balances in OnePay credit cards. This service is a good way of eliminating the technical obstacles that have traditionally divided the digital resources and the weekly grocery shopping.

Read More: Amazon and Walmart’s Stablecoin Ambitions Could Disrupt Crypto Payments Landscape

Technical Infrastructure and Partnerships

In order to support such services, OnePay is collaborating with ZeroHash, a Chicago-based infrastructure company focused on the settlement of digital assets. ZeroHash recently announced the close of a $104 million financing round with Interactive Brokers highlighting its expanding position as the plumbing of mainstream crypto adoption. Through an existing third party supplier, OnePay does not encounter the regulatory and technical challenges of developing a custom trading engine.

The presented infrastructure option will guarantee that OnePay will be able to accommodate large-volume transactions and still be compliant with the financial rules of the U.S. ZeroHash offers the APIs needed to bridge the blockchain networks to the standard banking rails that Walmart operates in the traditional banking infrastructure. This arrangement is similar to the approach taken by large brokerage firms such as the E-Trade of Morgan Stanley which is also gearing up to provide direct exposure to crypto to its clients.

Cryptomic Utility Scaling 150M Weekly Shoppers

The move by Walmart into the crypto-to-cash world is noteworthy due to the huge number of its users. The retailer has a customer base of about 150 million customers each week in the United States alone. Whereas crypto-native products, such as Coinbase and Kraken, are aimed at investors, OnePay targets a market segment, which, perhaps, does not care about professional trading features as much as they care about the practical utility of their assets.

The program arrives when the institutional interest in the digital asset sector grows. Bitcoin has just exceeded the figure of 120,000 and market capitalization of the stablecoins has increased to an all-time high of 300 billion. These milestones have generated a new demand for retail friendly crypto products which are not simply speculative, but are efficient in terms of payments.

Read More: Coinbase Bets Big on Prediction Markets, Acquiring The Clearing Company to Scale Onchain Event Trading

Influence on the Retail Fintech Scene

The shift places OnePay in the full-fledged competition with leading fintech companies such as PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App offered by Block. These solutions have been providing different types of crypto support over the years, but the fact that Walmart is thoroughly integrated with traditional retail is what provides OnePay an edge over the competition. As a user, the fact that one can manage a paycheck, get rewards, and use Bitcoin in the same ecosystem to purchase their household items is an impressive value proposition.

According to industry observers, it is one of several trends that are moving toward financialization of retailing. By providing a digital wallet that can be used with both fiat and crypto, Walmart is effectively proving to take over a larger portion of the financial life-cycle of the consumer. This decreases the dependence on the conventional banks and credit card networks, which may minimize transaction costs to the retailer and provide greater freedom to the customer.