Wells Fargo to roll out actively managed crypto strategy 

Wells Fargo is the latest in a string of banks to hop on the crypto bandwagon, with their investment management division working on a crypto investments strategy set to be rolled out in mid-June.

This will come as a welcomed surprise to clients of Wells Fargo. In December last year, John LaForge, Head of Real-Asset Strategy at Wells Fargo said the bank wasn’t recommending bitcoin because they simply didn’t have the infrastructure. Shortly before LaForge’s comments, bitcoin hit its record high of $19,245. Just four months later, it hit $63,729.

On Wednesday, President of Wells Fargo Investment Institute, Darrell Cronk explained, “We think the cryptocurrency space has just kind of hit an evolution and maturation of its development that allows it now to be a viable investable asset.”

Rapper Diddy invests in DeFi app

American rapper Sean Combs, aka Diddy, has been revealed as one of several A-lister investors for crypto-powered banking app, Eco. Diddy has long advocated for crypto adoption, having made his first utterances about the power of smart contracts and decentralized data in 2018.

Diddy’s latest move in the crypto sphere puts him alongside other Eco investors, including comedian Tiffany Haddish, National Football League players Larry Fitzgerald and Kelvin Beachum Jr., musician Justin “3LAU” Blau, and soccer player Keisuke Honda.

Andy Bromberg, CEO at Eco says, “These investors are role models to so many people around the world.”

UK and Scandanavian taxis to accept crypto payments on Ethereum

Catching a ride with crypto just became easier for some residents in the UK and Scandinavia. Mobile payments firm HIPS and Nordic taxi payment gateway The Payment House have joined forces to allow cabs in those regions to accept crypto using the Ethereum blockchain.

10,000 taxis in the UK and 20,000 in Scandinavia will be able to use the payment gateway after it debuts in a beta test in November. Initially, the platform will accept HIPS’ Merchant token (MTO), which is issued on Ethereum under its ERC-20 standard, and the USDC stablecoin. According to the announcement, riders can expect support for other cryptos at a later stage.

HIPS CEO John Cavebring said, “We believe that the consumer-oriented features of the MTO are the missing piece for crypto payments to have a market penetration and mass adoption among mainstream consumers.”

He described the system, made up of the HIPS Merchant Protocol, the HMP-gateway platform, and its token as, “a solution that introduces consumer protection concepts from the traditional card payment industry to the Ethereum blockchain.”