Very very unlikely (if you ask me), generally a contender is unable to even see radically new technologies after they're up-and-coming. That they would design it, design it properly, and launch without fanfarre is extremely unlikely to me.
You're right, we see this a lot in tech, because start-ups are easy to start. But in other places / industries people who want to innovate have no choice but to work in R&D at a big company. For example, in India, it's really hard to start new companies, so big companies (like TATA) continue to out innovate everyone and disrupt themselves. It's really hard to start a new bank, so if you're smart and interested in innovating in finance, you don't really have much choice but to work for a bank. Plus governments are really the incumbents here, so it's less likely for them to start a currency to rival their own than it is for a bank
