A New York-based financial institution, Flushing Bank, is planning to offer Bitcoin (BTC) services to its customers.
Flushing Bank says it has partnered with NYDIG, a financial technologies company dedicated to offering crypto solutions to both institutional and retail clients, to enable its customers to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin on the online banking platform.
Flushing Bank’s CEO and chairman, John Buran, says the move is driven partly by “consumer demand.”
“As part of our ongoing digital transformation, we recognize the importance of staying current with emerging market trends and consumer demand for alternate financial services.”
Besides processing the transactions, Flushing Bank says that NYDIG will provide custody for the Bitcoin.
Flushing Bank, which was founded in 1929, says it will launch the Bitcoin service during the first quarter of this year. As of the third quarter of 2021, Flushing Bank held slightly over $8 billion in total assets.
Five Star Bank, another New York-based bank, also announced this week that it had partnered with NYDIG to enable its customers to buy, sell and hold Bitcoin. Five Star Bank intends to begin introducing the Bitcoin service in the second quarter of this year.
A report recently released by the American Banker indicated that 300 small banks are in the process of enabling Bitcoin services on their online platforms after partnering with NYDIG.
One of the first US banks to offer Bitcoin trading, Vast Bank, said the move helped to increase its retail customer base exponentially across the country.
Bitcoin is trading at $37,847 at time of writing, an increase of slightly over 3% in the last 24 hours.
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