America’s second-largest bank, Bank Of America, has established a team dedicated to researching cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reports.
Cryptocurrencies: One of the Fastest Growing Ecosystems
In a memo, the bank emphasized the growing interest in cryptocurrencies, describing them as one of the fastest-growing emerging technology ecosystems. Bank of America’s head of global research, Candace Browning, noted that“We are uniquely positioned to provide thought leadership due to our strong industry research analysis, market-leading global payments platform, and our blockchain expertise.”According to the memo, Alkesh Shah, the bank’s former head of the Global Technology Specialist team, will lead the cryptocurrency research team. Shah will report to Michael Maras, who leads Bank of America’s fixed-income, currencies, and commodities research globally. Mamta Jain and Andrew Moss will also join the crypto research team and will report to Shah. Shah has been working in Bank of America since 2013 and has previously worked at Morgan Stanley and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Bank of America has been in the blockchain scene for years. In 2018, the bank held the largest number of blockchain patents compared to other banks, and in 2019 it filed 722 patent applications. The North Carolina-based bank also began hiring for several blockchain positions that same year. In May this year, the Bank of America joined Paxos Trust. co, a blockchain-based settlement network for equities. Thanks to this partnership, the bank began settling stock trades in minutes rather than days using blockchain.