Huawei to Offer First Crypto Wallet App on Latest Smartphones

Chinese telecommunications firm and smartphone maker Huawei is partnering with BTC.com to roll out a mobile cryptocurrency app for the tech giant's newly launched app store.

BTC.com, which is owned by mining giant Bitmain, tracks cryptocurrency mining and block information, while also providing a digital wallet service. The site's vice president for business operations, Alejandro de la Torre, said its new wallet application will appear in Huawei's proprietary app store, AppGallery, which was launched in March.

Currently, AppGallery is only available for customers via a pre-install on the latest Huawei devices, but will be rolled out for older versions in the second quarter of this year. That said, the effort to boost cryptocurrency wallet support is still a notable move by Huawei, and is likely to open up cryptocurrency services to a potentially huge user base.

“Cryptocurrencies have recently expanded the human understanding of digital economy at a large scale ... We expect to see massive growth in global cryptocurrency adoption habits in the near future," said Dr. Jaime Gonzalo, vice president of Huawei Mobile Services.

Huawei's move also comes at a time when the tech giant is moving to beef up its wider effort for blockchain development.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, Huawei launched its blockchain-as-a-service platform just last month – one built on Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 technology developed by the Linux Foundation's Hyperledger blockchain consortium, of which Huawei has been a member since 2016.

Huawei image via Shutterstock