KPMG, a Big Four auditor and network of professional service firms, has released multiple reports on cryptocurrencies and blockchain since the industry became widely popularized during 2017’s bull run.
As the firm is notable and respected, their reports stand the test of time and are often revisited down the road. One such report, titled “Cryptocurrencies: Do they matter to corporate treasuries?” was released in April 2018 and still holds true today.
Per the KPMG report, out of 1,500 cryptocurrencies, the four most important ones are Bitcoin (BTC), Ripple (XRP), Ethereum (ETH), and IOTA (MIOTA).
The firm views these cryptos so highly based on their assessment and importance to corporate treasuries as well as their level of adoption and potential use cases.
What KPMG Thinks About Bitcoin (BTC)
The team of experts at KPMG believe that Bitcoin’s importance comes from its extensive use and potential use in developing countries whose currencies are unstable or failing. They also note that it is highly important for people residing in corrupt countries where people don’t have access to traditional stores of value or banking services.
Currently, Bitcoin (BTC) is gaining a lot of attention and adoption from residents of countries like Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Turkey, Iran, and some others as Bitcoin provides a hedge to these countries rising level of uncertainty surrounding their governments and currency.
Per the report, experts said:
“Bitcoin plays a pioneering ideological and technological role and demonstrates that cryptocurrencies are essentially technically feasible.”
Ripple’s (XRP)– Third Largest Crypto by Market Cap
KPMG experts view Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency highly due to the company’s connections and partnerships with more than 200 financial institutions around the world. Therefore, they believe the XRP digital asset has an extremely bright future.
Ripple’s 200+ financial partners of RippleNet all have the ability to make instant and inexpensive cross-border remittance payments via Ripple’s xRapid product which utilized XRP. While only 10 of these financial partners are using xRapid and XRP, the potential for XRP to be used in the future is high.
Ethereum (ETH)– So Much More than a Digital Currency
The team of experts at KPMG view Ethereum as more of a platform for smart contracts than as a currency like Bitcoin and XRP.
The report states the potential for Ethereum to be adopted in industries ranging from logistical processes to the insurance trade and financing matters.
Now, just 1 year after their report, many firms are using Ethereum for their smart contract platform and developing many important dapps on the network. In addition to this, the Forbes Blockchain50 list shows that, of the top 50 billion dollar firms using blockchain technology, more than half of them are working with Ethereum.
IOTA (MIOTA)– King of the Internet of Things (IoT)
In the report, KPMG experts claimed that IOTA was one of the most innovative cryptocurrencies at the time while noting it was also the most experimental and least established.
However, since the report, IOTA has progressed and is beginning to prove themselves with use cases and new partnerships including with automobile companies Jaguar Land Rover and Voltswagon, the home appliances giant Bosch, and the city of Austin to improve their transportation system.
According to KPMG, IOTA has the potential to fulfill its goal to:
“Become the established currency on the Internet of Things (IoT) for autonomous payments between machines.”
Do you think the 4 cryptocurrencies mentioned here are still the most important today? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
