Where two major investment banking firms Citi and JP Morgan Chase are still looking into offering cryptocurrency custody services, the oldest bank of the United States of America (USA) is moving into the cryptocurrency custody business with a new suite of crypto services for users very soon.
Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon, the biggest custodian in the world with around $41 Trillion worth of assets in its custody, has announced to step into the world of digital assets now. BNY Mellon will start offering cryptocurrency services very soon. The bank said in an announcement that it has decided to start financing digital currencies.
As reported by the Wall Street Journal, BNY Mellon will launch a new cryptocurrency custody unit and will let its customers take benefit of this unit. The bank will be issuing, holding, and transferring Bitcoin (BTC) for its customers. It will allow them to transact in digital currencies. According to the bank, cryptocurrencies will run on its network in the same way as the other traditional financial assets run on it including the United States Treasury bonds.
While speaking about this new offering in an interview, BNY Mellon’s Head of Advanced Solutions Mike Demissie said that the platform that they have developed would be available to provide services for any of the digital currencies. Demissie said that the demand and interest from their clients would drive it.
NYDFS Superintendent Linda Lacewell said that it is an amazing development for BNY Mellon. She said that the New York Department of Financial Services is already committed to ensuring the growth of the cryptocurrency sector as they are in search of new modern ways through which they can boost the economy. She also said that BNY Mellon does not need an NYDFS Bitlicense for launching custodial services for cryptocurrencies as it is already authorized for it as an NYS-chartered banking institution.
This move of BNY Mellon to roll out cryptocurrency services for users is highly driven by the growing interest of institutional investors from across the entire globe into the top digital assets. However, BNY Mellon is not the first bank from the United States that is gearing up for entering the cryptocurrency market, but the other popular banks such as JP Morgan are also in this race.