BitGo Debuts Platform for Retail Cryptocurrency Customers

Digital assets solutions provider BitGo has debuted a dedicated retail platform.

The new platform, announced Monday (Dec. 2), is designed to offer retail customers access to BitGo’s digital asset trading, staking, wallets and qualified custody services.

“We are thrilled to launch BitGo’s dedicated retail platform and offer the same white-glove, crypto-native solutions to retail investors that we’ve delivered to the global institutional market since 2013,” Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, said in a news release.

“Retail investors need a security-first, crypto-native platform, and we are excited to serve as that trusted partner,” he added. “We look forward to enhancing the retail investing, trading, storage, and staking experience for investors around the world.”

The company said its platform offers the security that comes from safeguarding billions in cryptocurrency assets for institutions, along with access to “secure, regulated custody” via cold and self-storage, trading, staking, lending and wallet services. The company is also offering a giveaway to American retail customers, giving them the chance to win a full bitcoin each quarter by signing up.

In other crypto news, PYMNTS last week explored the concept of shopping with the digital currency, something that is increasingly for more consumers than diehards and technophiles.

“Plus, with the holiday shopping season officially here, many consumers are interested in exploring what they can buy with crypto, while merchants and businesses are navigating the complexities of accepting it as a payment mechanism,” that report said. “Crypto payments are instant, which means no more pending transactions. For online marketplaces, these payments can help enable streamlined cross-border purchases.”

With regulations tightening and technology improving, observers are hopeful that crypto payments go from being a novelty to a fixture of retail and online commerce. As a sign of the shifting tides of commerce, crypto payments have begun making inroads in B2B.

And, as that report added, the adoption of crypto as a payment mechanism is part of a bigger shift toward the digital transformation of payments.

For example, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase recently acquired the Utopia Labs team to boost its onchain payments roadmap within Coinbase Wallet.

“Together, we’ll create a future where individuals and businesses large and small use onchain payments to make their lives better every day,” Jesse Pollak, head of Base and Coinbase Wallet, said at the time.

And, at the beginning of November, payments acceptance provider Ingenico began a partnership with Crypto.com to bring cryptocurrency payments and merchant services to users of the Ingenico platform, allowing merchants worldwide to accept crypto payments.