The Bank of New York Mellon on Wall Street, New York.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
Bank of New York Mellon, the nation’s oldest bank, said Thursday it will begin financing bitcoin and other digital currencies.
The custody bank will finally allow digital currencies to go through the same financial network it currently uses for more traditional holdings, such as US Treasury bonds and equities, after months of analyzing its prototype framework. digital assets.
“BNY Mellon is proud to be the first bank in the world to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets,” Roman Regelman, general manager of asset services and head of digital at BNY Mellon, said in a press release.
“The growing demand for customers’ digital assets, the maturity of advanced solutions, and improved regulatory clarity represent a great opportunity to expand our current service offerings to this emerging field, ”he added.
The BNY Mellon executive added that pending product analysis and approval, the bank should start offering services to its customers later this year. The Wall Street Journal first reported on the bank’s cryptocurrency announcement.
Shares of BNY Mellon rose 2% in premarket trading after the news.
The measure represents a significant step for the country’s leading depository banks, which specialize in protecting the financial assets of companies and individuals from their customers.
In the past, major depository banks have expressed concern about possible regulatory or legal risks involved in cryptocurrency market banking. But as the prices of bitcoin and other digital assets have continued to rise, they have become more popular among asset managers, hedge funds, and other institutional investors.
Bitcoin, with a robust start to 2021, rose 7.7% to around $ 48,250 at 8:30 a.m. in New York, according to Coin Metrics. The digital currency has risen more than 60% since the beginning of the year.
Individual investors and companies have become more comfortable with digital currencies as well-known business leaders, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk, put their weight behind a handful of assets.
Tesla revealed earlier this month that it bought $ 1.5 billion worth of bitcoins to get “more flexibility to diversify and maximize our cash returns.”
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