Commonwealth Bank, Australia’s largest bank, plans to add support for ten cryptocurrencies, including BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC, directly through the CommBank app.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) will be the first Australian bank to offer its customers the ability to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. To do this, CBA announced a partnership with the American cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and the Chainalysis company.
Testing of the new feature in the app, with more than 6.5 million users will begin in the coming weeks, with wider rollouts scheduled for 2022.
CBA CEO Matt Comyn said:
“The emergence and growing demand for digital currencies from customers creates both challenges and opportunities for the financial services sector, which has seen a significant number of new players and business models innovating in this area.
We believe we can play an important role in crypto to address what’s clearly a growing customer need and provide the capability, security, and confidence in a crypto trading platform.
In looking at ways that we can support our customers, we have made the strategic decision to form an exclusive partnership in Australia with Gemini, a global leader with strong security and a track record of serving large institutions. CBA will leverage Gemini’s crypto exchange and custody service and integrate it into the CommBank app through APIs.
Our clients have expressed concerns about existing cryptocurrency services on the market, including the difficulty of using third-party exchanges, lack of trust, and risks of fraud. Therefore, we see a great opportunity in creating a high-quality, trusted, and safe service.”
As noted by the CEO of Blockchain Australia, Steve Vallas, this move by the CBA is extremely important because other local banks now have no choice but to follow the same path.
Michael Gronager, CEO and Co-Founder, Chainalysis, said:
“Financial institutions like CBA play an integral role in growing cryptocurrency adoption safely. We are thrilled to be a part of this important alliance with CBA and our partner Gemini to play a pioneering role in building trust in cryptocurrencies in the Australian market.”
Disclaimer: This content is informational and should not be considered financial advice. The views expressed in this article may include the author's personal opinions and do not reflect The Crypto Basic’s opinion. Readers are encouraged to do thorough research before making any investment decisions. The Crypto Basic is not responsible for any financial losses.
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