Fintech
PayPal Ventures-Backed Fintech Mesh Partners With Italian Crypto Wallet Conio | WTAQ News Talk | 97.5 FM · 1360 AM
MILAN (Reuters) – Mesh, a U.S. fintech whose investors include PayPal Ventures, will provide customers of Italian digital asset wallet Conio with access to several major cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance or Coinbase, the two companies said on Monday .
The partnership will allow Conio’s 430,000 Italian customers to access 10 leading cryptocurrency trading platforms via the Conio app, the companies said. Customers will be able to instantly transfer any bitcoin purchased on exchanges into their Conio wallet, rather than having to scan a QR code or go through other steps as is currently the case.
Conio is supported by the Italian postal service Poste Italiane and the asset manager Banca Generali.
Using open banking technology that enables the sharing of financial data, a single Mesh account can authenticate users across over 300 centralized cryptocurrency exchanges and self-custodial wallets.
Conio currently only provides custody services for digital assets such as bitcoin.
“Through our partnership with Conio, we are rolling out the infrastructure to enable secure, seamless cryptocurrency transfers and aggregations for hundreds of thousands of users in the region,” said Mesh founder Bam Azizi.
Conio said a study by crypto industry association Adan and consulting firm KPMG showed that two-thirds of Italians who bought cryptocurrency stored their bitcoins on the exchanges they used to buy them, rather than having personal wallets.
The Italian figure is similar to 63% in France or 69% in Britain, Conio said, adding that there is a need to raise awareness about the security of digital assets.
Conio has developed a system that would protect users’ cryptocurrencies even if the company itself ceased to exist, Conio Chief Executive Orlando Merone told Reuters.
The collapse of major cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2022 inflicted billions of dollars in losses on its customers.
PayPal Ventures is PayPal’s global corporate venture division and invests in promising start-ups in sectors of interest to the US payments company.
(Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Susan Fenton)