Cryptocurrency Trading: PwC Partners Cred To Enhance Methods

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) recently announced on its website about a collaboration with Cred — a lending platform that offers to secure cryptocurrencies and also provides crypto credits — aimed at building awareness in the traditional financial industry about blockchain and cryptocurrency assets. The goal is to build trust and establish standards in place to support the next 10 million users of cryptocurrency assets.

Cred, founded by former PayPal financial technology experts Dan Schatt and Lu Hua, has secured over $250 million of lending capital. It has offices in San Francisco, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Munich, and the company aims to harness the power of blockchain to allow everyone to benefit from low-cost credit products.

“We are excited to work with Cred to help increase industry awareness regarding how the asset-backed digital token ecosystem can be secured and scaled on behalf of participants along the digital asset value chain," Grainne McNamara, blockchain and cryptocurrency leader of PwC U.S., said in the announcement.

McNamara added that the partnership would utilize the industry experience to support the "developing asset class" and its associated market infrastructure components.

"We believe this exploration of the blockchain infrastructure and associated operational frameworks can help the industry develop an increased level of satisfaction," he said.

PwC recognized that investors wanting to invest in cryptocurrency assets usually looked at assets that could be pegged to a stable fiat currency such as the U.S. dollar. A reserve ledger — which provides transparency and validation — is required for cryptocurrency assets to be pegged to a fiat currency. With this partnership, PwC wants to enhance the existing standards to facilitate a transparent set of reserve ledger which would, in turn, secure the assets and reduce the skepticism in industry.

"PwC will also provide valuable insights on governance, security, risk management, and controls to help shape the future of the ecosystem and associated industry practices," the announcement read.

Schatt, who spoke with Bitcoin Magazine, said the biggest problems facing cryptocurrency was volatility. That exists because the cryptocurrency market lacks liquidity, and trading can frequently result in price swings. Institutional investors are skeptical to invest out of concern their funds could vanish due to cryptocurrency market’s wild inconsistency.

“PwC’s commitment to the crypto community at large sends a very strong message to retail investors, mainstream financial services providers and the crypto enthusiasts that the world is moving toward decentralization, transparency, and accountability in a system that will evolve beyond the need for trusted intermediaries,” said Schatt. “This will help the ecosystem evaluate key considerations as standards are enhanced relative to the creation and management of stablecoins and universal digital assets that support mass adoption of crypto assets.”

PwC had been directly involved with blockchain and cryptocurrencies since its investment in VeChain — China-based Internet-of-Things blockchain network — in May. The decision behind this investment was to utilize the IoT-focused blockchain to enable the existing infrastructures of large-scale conglomerates.