Cryptocurrencies, with a market capitalization of over $200 billion, can no longer be dismissed as just a fad. While still making up only a tiny fraction of overall global financial markets, they have matured from the ranks of fledgling startups to being leveraged by large enterprises for use cases ranging from global payments, asset-backed tokens for metals and commodities, fiat currency-equivalent digital coins, the Internet of Things, decentralized cloud storage and more.
Earlier this year, JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM) announced its United States dollar-equivalent JPM Coin for business-to-business payments; a consortium of large banks announced Fnality International, which aims to facilitate cross-border payments across five major currencies; and Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) introduced Libra, targeting retail payments.