Is cryptocurrency the next logical evolution of the monetary system? To explore whether we’re at an inflection point, we’ll look back at moments in the history of money when how we paid for things and stored value long-term changed for the better.
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Crypto has become increasingly integrated into the financial system, from the use of stablecoins for payments, to the trading of tokenized equities on blockchains, to the adoption of crypto holdings by corporate treasuries. We explore how PNC Bank, one of the first movers in this space, has been expanding access to crypto and the challenges it has had to overcome.
In less than three years, the amount of tokenized real-world assets has grown eightfold, to more than $30 billion across equities, fixed income, private assets, real estate and more. And that’s just the start of the tokenization revolution, experts predict, because of four main drivers: Increased liquidity for illiquid assets, broader investor access, operational efficiency, and global distribution and interoperability.
Just as it took the British government a century to catch up to Jonathan Swift’s innovative person-to-person loan program, the U.S. government has been slow to react to crypto, creating bureaucratic and legal hurdles to growth in the industry. But with a new administration and a new Congress, the industry now feels there’s reason to be optimistic that regulatory clarity, and a new chapter in the story of crypto in America, is beginning.
Just as mobile banking revolutionized our relationship with our money and led to a plethora of new tools for management and investing, the proliferation of crypto and blockchain technologies have opened up all manner of new investment opportunities that go far beyond what early Bitcoin adopters could’ve imagined.
In the 1950s, a businessman, looking for a new way to settle his lunch tab, sparked a payments revolution and paved the way for today’s cashless economy. Now, the growing use of stablecoins like USDC is leading businesses and consumers to an era of digital payments that’s even faster and cheaper than a credit card.
What does it mean for content creators to “go onchain?” We’ll learn how this movement to take financial power back from closed-off social media platforms could give creators a kind of freedom that they’ve struggled to hold onto for centuries.
The issue of borders has long been a perplexing one for our monetary system. Are cryptocurrencies the solution to money’s border problem?
Crypto may have been invented as a currency, and it may have gained popularity as a high-return asset, but there’s another component to the digital revolution that’s upending the financial industry: blockchain. Can blockchain be the next big step in overhauling how we move money from one place to the next?
Recent regulatory approval of Bitcoin ETFs has opened up crypto to investors, but many investors are still worried that high price volatility makes Bitcoin too unreliable for integration into a responsible investment plan. Can Bitcoin be a part of a well-balanced portfolio?
Our financial system is tangled up with extra costs, hidden fees, unpredictable wait times and infuriating delays. Is Bitcoin the innovation that will finally take friction out of the system and free our money?
Is cryptocurrency the next logical evolution of the monetary system? In Evolving Money, to explore whether we’re at an inflection point, we’ll look back at moments in the history of money when how we paid for things and stored value long-term changed for the better.
