Bitcoin Accepted: ‘Big 4’ Accounting Giant PwC Accepts its First Bitcoin Payment
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), one of the world’s largest accounting firms, has accepted its first ever bitcoin payment for its advisory services.PwC is the second ‘big four’ accounting firm to accept bitcoin as payments for its services after Ernst & Young
Going by the report published in the to a Wall Street Journal, PwC in Hong Kong disclosed it is working with a number of budding companies who have their business models in bitcoin and the wider cryptocurrency industry, encouraging the firm to accept its fees in the world’s most widely-known cryptocurrency. An ever-growing acceptance of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology among its clients has seen PwC accept bitcoin as a payment in Hong Kong. Notably, PwC also confirmed that it has been advising clients about crypto funds and investments, cryptocurrency exchanges and ICO’s – a radically new form of fundraising powered by cryptocurrencies. If one visits the PwC’s website, he or she can access various pages on company’s services and research.
In an official statement,PwC Asia-Pacific chairman Raymund Chao mentioned: “This decision helps illustrate how we are embracing new technology and incorporating innovative business models across our full range of services,”. He also added, “ It is also an indication that bitcoin and other established cryptocurrencies have now developed into more broadly accepted forms of settlement.”
This also brings to light that Institutional adoption of bitcoin as a currency is slowly catching on, not quite as quickly as financial institutions’ embrace of the cryptocurrency as a financial instrument.
Ernst & Young (EY) in Switzerland has already become the first firm of its kind to accept bitcoin for both auditing and advisory services since the turn of 2017. Ernst & Young also installed a Bitcoin ATM in itsoffices late last year, providing its employees with a digital bitcoin wallet within its in-house EY wallet app. Accepting bitcoin, EY said in late 2016, was essential for EY’s strategy of “digitizing itself”.
In a fortnight, CME Group – the world’s largest exchange owner – will launch its bitcoin futures contracts product, signaling a growing trend within Wall Street that is now warming to bitcoin. It is also reportedthat New York-based Nasdaq – the world’s second-largest stock exchange after the NYSE – is also planning to launch its bitcoin futures product in the first half of 2018. If these plans work out and the institutions start accepting the cryptocurrencies it would be a huge boost cryptocurrencies and businesses
