Walmart’s Crypto Coin May Face Less Heat Than Libra, Cowen Says
Walmart Inc.’s cryptocurrency effort should generate less political opposition than Facebook Inc.’s Libra and may especially appeal to Democrats looking for alternatives for people who do not usually use banks, Cowen said.
Walmart’s coin may resemble a stored value card and would be pegged to the U.S. dollar, Jaret Seiberg, a senior policy analyst at Cowen, wrote in a note to clients Monday. The coin doesn’t appear to share the same “global intentions” of Facebook’s Libra, Seiberg said. A launch does not seem imminent after a Walmart spokesman said on Friday that the retailer has no plans to immediately use the patent it applied for.