BNY Mellon Strengthens Crypto Ties With BTC and ETH Custody Service

Earlier this week, Bank of New York (BNY) Mellon Corporation announced that it would launch a custody platform. BNY Mellon, the oldest and one of the most valuable banking institutions in the United States, has become the latest financial giant in the country to embrace digital assets.

Starting with the Big Names

In an official statement shared on Tuesday, BNY Mellon confirmed the launch of a crypto custody service that will focus on protecting customers’ crypto holdings. The bank clarified that the service would focus primarily on custody for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), making it the first major banking institution to offer custody for both digital and traditional assets.

Roman Regelman, BNY Mellon’s chief executive of securities services, explained that digital asset custody would help the company to continue on its path towards building trust and ensuring innovation, especially in the digital asset space. The New York-based bank also views this move as the perfect way to keep up with its competitors in the digital and fintech space.

BNY Mellon has been operating for over 230 years. With over $43 trillion in assets under custody worldwide, the bank has continued to work out the best path toward innovation and remaining competitive. The push for crypto services appears to be its latest move.

BNY Makes Broader Crypto Push

This BTC and ETH Custody Service isn’t BNY Mellon’s first foray into the digital asset space. The company began its push into crypto in February 2022 when it launched a Bitcoin custody service for its institutional clients. At the time, BNY Mellon reportedly claimed that its top institutional clients had been more interested in cryptocurrencies following the market surge of 2020.

In a bid to fulfill this demand, the company launched its custody service to help customers hold and transfer their Bitcoin, essentially acting as a digital asset manager on their behalf.

This year, BNY Mellon has continued to improve its crypto repertoire. In February, the custodian bank partnered with Chainalysis to ensure proper tracking of customers’ cryptocurrency portfolios. The partnership will help BNY Mellon properly track its customers’ digital assets, ensuring that their transactions comply with relevant laws and regulations.

And in March, Circle, the financial services company behind the USDC stablecoin, announced that it had selected BNY Mellon as a custodian for the asset. As part of the deal, the bank has committed to exploring the possibility of using digital cash for settlement purposes. Regelman said, at the time, that the bank was excited to pursue opportunities in digitizing assets for a broad range of market participants.

Big Names Continue Crypto Adoption

NMY Mellon’s entry into crypto custody is the latest legacy financial institution pushing into the crypto space.

Several other big Wall Street titans have embraced digital assets in the past few months. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, announced the launch of a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) that provides exposure to the blockchain industry for its European customers. This was just weeks after partnering with Coinbase to offer its institutional customers access to the crypto market.

We are proud to announce a partnership with @BlackRock. BlackRock’s Aladdin clients will now have direct access to crypto markets through Coinbase Prime.

Read more 👇https://t.co/LA3XeYYbvs

— Coinbase (@coinbase) August 4, 2022

Also, Bloomberg reported last month that multinational financial services firm Nasdaq had created a new division focusing on digital asset offerings. Like BNY Mellon, the company is kicking off its offering with custody for BTC and ETH.

With institutional adoption growing, the crypto market is building a strong fundamental base for when it flips bullish.

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