Zip Co. Could Offer Stock, Crypto Trading, Co-Founder Says By...

Zip Co. Could Offer Stock, Crypto Trading, Co-Founder Says By Stuart Condie

(Dow Jones) -- SYDNEY--Zip Co. is looking at expanding into stock and cryptocurrency trading instead of following its buy-now-pay-later rival Afterpay Ltd. into traditional banking style products, Co-Founder Peter Gray said. Mr. Gray said Zip was looking at offering the services via its existing app as the Australia-listed firm tries to further engage the younger consumers who make up the majority of its customer base. He didn't offer a timeline and said it was unclear whether stock or crypto trading would launch first. He suggested Zip would likely roll out the services to its U.S. QuadPay unit, which added 674,000 customers in Zip's fiscal third quarter for a total of 3.8 million customers. "We're very keen move on this feature and the U.S. in particular might be further advanced than Australia," Mr. Gray told Dow Jones Newswires on Tuesday. Investor interest in cryptocurrencies is surging with the price of bitcoin passing US$60,000, up from about US$7,000 a year ago. Coinbase, the largest U.S. exchange for bitcoin and other blockchain-based tokens, attracted 13 million new users over the first three months of 2021 and estimated earnings of US$730 million to US$800 million on revenue of US$1.8 billion during the quarter. Mr. Gray said Zip's short-term plans did not include traditional banking products. Its plans are "probably more related to crypto or the ability to buy and sell shares from the app rather than the ability to have a no-coupon savings account," Mr. Gray said. Afterpay, which has a market capitalization of about 35 billion Australian dollars (US$26.7 billion) to Zip's A$4.6 billion, last year announced it would offer branded savings accounts in partnership with Westpac Banking Corp., which is Australia's No.2 bank by market capitalization. Mr. Gray said Zip's options for the new products were to use existing infrastructure, partner with existing platforms, acquire specialist businesses, or build anew. "It's probably going to be slightly different for each of the products and services we roll out," he said.Zip's shares were last 12% higher at A$9.33 after the company's quarterly results beat analyst forecasts.Write to Stuart Condie at [email protected]