Hundreds of small US banks are set to offer Bitcoin (BTC) trading services during the first half of 2022 as digital assets continue to become popular among clients.
According to a report from American Banker, an estimated 300 community banks will start providing BTC trading on their mobile apps starting in the first or second quarter of this year with the aid of crypto fintech company NYDIG.
One bank involved in the program is Georgia-based BankSouth with over $1.3 billion in assets.
BankSouth CEO Harold Reynolds said,
“We have seen significant activity in cryptocurrency transactions from our customer accounts, and a few investments have been rather large, so that is obviously getting our attention.”
The first bank to offer BTC trading, Oklahoma-based Vast Bank, has already seen success, according to CEO Brad Scrivner. Vast Bank teamed up with crypto exchange giant Coinbase and began supporting digital assets last October. The bank currently offers 12 crypto assets.
“The Vast crypto banking launch has gone well. In the first four months since launch, we added approximately five times our historical retail customer base and those customers are in all 50 states and three U.S. territories.”
Zack Bishop of Synovus Financial, which manages $56 billion in assets and plans to launch BTC trading in its mobile app, says banks are taking digital assets more seriously.
Bishop says that banks have traditionally lent capital based on physical assets such as trucks, farming equipment and real estate. However, he says banks have recently begun showing interest in blockchain-based assets that show proof of ownership.
“We think that that’s the beginning point of how the operational structures on the back end of the bank need to start to pivot toward working on blockchains. Cryptocurrency was the first place we wanted to be.”
Bitcoin is changing hands at $42,288 at time of writing, a 2.5% increase from its seven-day low of $41,265.
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