Walmart’s fintech affiliate OnePay is planning a crypto upgrade. According to AInvest the company will add Bitcoin and Ethereum trading to its mobile app later this year as part of its ambition to build a U.S.‑style “super app”

The expansion will let users hold, buy and sell digital coins and convert them to cash for shopping at Walmart or paying card balances.

OnePay launched in 2021 as a joint venture between Walmart and Ribbit Capital and already offers high‑yield savings, credit and debit cards, BNPL loans and wireless phone plans

OnePay isn’t going it alone…

The company will partner with Zerohash, a crypto‑infrastructure startup, to handle custody and trading. This avoids the headache of building a trading stack from scratch. The app currently ranks No. 5 among free finance apps on Apple’s App Store and already has a built‑in advantage: Walmart’s network of roughly 150 million U.S. shoppers per week

Adding crypto support should help close the competitive gap with rivals like PayPal and Cash App, most of which already offer some form of crypto services. The move reflects a broader trend — even Morgan Stanley’s E‑Trade is preparing to offer direct crypto exposure to clients.

Zerohash recently raised $104 million to scale its platform as more banks and fintech firms chase the crypto crowd.

The ‘Super App’ Concept is Also Elon Musk’s Goal for X…

It’s now a race between Musk and Walmart, this move puts Walmart ahead in the race when it comes to payments, and X leaps ahead when it comes to the app being used for people to communicate.

It seems much easier for Musk to add payment features than it will be for Walmart to get customers to even think of their app as a social platform.

Both are trying to make a US version of China’s WeChat, which is a messenger app that Chinese citizens now use for a huge portion of financial transactions. 

My take..

Partnering with Zerohash is a smart move for OnePay — better to rent the plumbing than to reinvent it. 

The bigger question is whether grandma will really trade Bitcoin while picking up groceries, probably not, but frankly, grandma won’t be here forever and younger generations are a lot more comfortable blurring the lines between paper money in a wallet and digital currencies in a virtual wallet.

Still, with 150 million shoppers in its orbit, Walmart can introduce crypto to middle America in a way that crypto‑native apps can only dream of. If successful, OnePay’s move could make crypto spending as mundane as buying milk — which is both exciting and oddly depressing for those who remember Bitcoin’s rebellious roots.

On a final note, when attempting to sign up to OnePay to take a look,  I was rejected despite putting in completely accurate information – it’s safe to say I’m pretty unimpressed by any app that tells me I am not really me. 

——————-
Author: Oliver Redding
Seattle Newsdesk  / Breaking Crypto News

---

Filed under: News - @ October 4, 2025 11:29 am