Huawei to launch Bitcoin wallet on app store

From Friday Huawei phones will offer BTC.com’s Bitcoin wallet in its app store, allowing China’s largest mobile phone seller to tap into the country’s bristling cryptocurrency market.

BTC.com, which controls the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool, has previously been difficult to access for Chinese consumers given the government ban on Google Play and parts of Apple’s iTunes.

Mobile payments and fintech (financial technology), however, are an enormous and growing industry in China, and whilst Beijing has taken a hard line towards initial coin offerings and trading platforms, virtual currencies are still popular.

“It’s a good opportunity to tap into the Chinese market,” said Alejandro de la Torre, vice president of BTC’s business operations to Bloomberg. “The use of cashless payments with apps is very big and the traditional banking system is lacking, so there’s a good use case for crypto payments to grow there.”