invezz.com
While the US regulators are still having quite a bit of trouble with regulating or even tolerating cryptocurrencies, the US financial institutions are rapidly starting to adopt them. Only recently, the Bank of America published a report in which it admitted that ‘Bitcoin is important,’ and that ‘the crypto industry is too large to ignore.’ Now, U.S Bank — the fifth-largest bank in the country — announced that it will start offering custody services for cryptocurrencies.
According to the bank, it will support Bitcoin (BTC/USD), Bitcoin Cash (BCH/USD), and Litecoin (LTC/USD), in partnership with New York Digital Investment Group. However, the bank doesn’t plan to stop there. Additional coins will be supported over time, according to one of its senior executives, Gunjan Kedia.
Another major bank ’goes crypto’
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The move likely comes due to great demand, as institutional investors, fund managers, and others have all started getting deeply involved with digital currencies in 2021. Initially, their interest started around May 2020, right around the last Bitcoin halving.
The event triggered a bullish sentiment among them and retail traders alike, and before the end of the year, the hype brought Bitcoin back to $20,000. In May 2021, the coin climbed all the way up to $64.8k, setting a record that has not been broken since.
Meanwhile, companies like Grayscale and Microstrategy have been consistently acquiring Bitcoin on behalf of their clients, constantly making headlines for buying more and more. While institutional investors are no longer as hesitant to go for cryptocurrencies as they used to be, they would still rather have specific institutions handle their money for them than do it themselves.
This is the main reason behind the rapid popularity growth of custody solutions among banks and other financial institutions.