As the buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) market gets more competitive, Zip is branching out into other financial services.

Zip Co (ASX: Z1P), the Australian fintech that offers BNPL, announced Tuesday its launch of crypto trading services and acceptance by its merchants of bitcoin as a payment mode. (Financial Review)

Zip ramps crypto off BNPL

Acting on the company’s internal research that suggested its BNPL users were 67% more likely to trade crypto-assets, Zip USA chief executive Brad Lindenberg said the company would enable on its app the functionality to transact digital currencies in the US.

The company’s 15,500 US merchants will also get to accept bitcoin in payment for sales of goods or services.

Next year the company will launch BitcoinBack, a feature that will allow customers to convert their cash rewards into bitcoin.

Millennial focus

Lindenberg told the Financial Review that the moves were part of the company’s strategy to offer products that comprised the “Millennial finance diet.”

“The innovation around crypto feels like the internet did in 1995,” Lindenberg said. “The distributed ledger [blockchain] is one of the most powerful concepts in fintech today and we feel it will be a revolution we need to be a part of.”

Crypto on Zip will launch in the US next year. The company intends to soon bring it to 12 other global markets including Australia over the next 12 to 18 months.

“We don’t know exactly where this is going to land,” Lindenberg said. “However, every day it becomes more clear that we need to be part of this movement.”

Related Story: Zip Acquires BNPL Providers In Europe And UAE