A community bank in California may be boarding the Bitcoin bandwagon.
Suncrest Bank is in talks with regulators and financial technology companies to allow its customers to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin.
Suncrest CEO Ciaran McMullan told the Sacramento Business Journal that the bank is acting on customer interest.
Says McMullan,
“The pandemic has had an impact on the acceptance and migration to digital.”
Bitcoin, which is down more than 40% from its record high in April, has been on dramatic plunge downward amid concerns that China will implement harsh crypto bans, and that Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced that Tesla would stop accepting Bitcoin as payment due to its environmental impact.
Instead, Suncrest is in discussions with NYDIG Trust Company LLC, a Bitcoin-focused financial services and technology provider, and Fidelity National Information Services Inc. (FIS), to create a platform that will allow banks to offer the ability to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin in bank accounts.
Suncrest has $1.3 billion in assets under management and seven locations throughout central California, including Fresno, Kingsburg, Lodi, Porterville, West Sacramento, Visalia and Yuba City.
Suncrest could offer Bitcoin to bank customers this year or in 2022. So far it is not considering any other cryptocurrencies.
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