Walmart Global Chief Technology Officer and Chief Development Officer Suresh Kumar was speaking at Yahoo Finance’s All Markets Summit.

Walmart (NYSE: WMT) global CTO Suresh Kumar made it very clear Tuesday that he envisaged a major role for crypto in the company’s future: “Crypto will become an important part of how customers transact. We want to make sure that we make it as friction free for customers to be able to transact, and to be able to buy, and how they are able to derive value out of it.” (Bitcoin.com)

Disruption in payments

Kumar’s vision is that crypto will disrupt payments in a three-pronged manner.

“I think that there are three major areas of disruption. Crypto falls in sort of the middle of it. I have talked before about the way in which customers are getting inspired and discovering products. That is changing,” he elaborated.

“Part of that is going to happen in the metaverse. Part of that is going to happen on live streams, inside your social media app. So whether it is physical goods or virtual goods, they [crypto] play a part in terms of what the customer wants,” Kumar added.

“And that is where I think a lot of the disruption is going to start happening in terms of different payment methods, different payment options.”

Walmart and banking

Separately, it was reported last month that Walmart was making serious inroads into banking, and that One, a fintech startup that is majority owned by the retail giant, will be the vehicle for the new venture. That was a natural progression given that Walmart already offers customers a number of financial services including encashment of checks at its MoneyCenter locations, tax preparation services, and foreign remittances through associate arrangements with companies including MoneyGram International (NASDAQ: MGI).

One would be off the mark with a significant advantage – a ready customer base comprising the retailer’s 150 million weekly shopping clients and a million strong employees.

Related Story: Walmart To Foray Into Banking Via Fintech Startup One

Photo by Marques Thomas on Unsplash