The Commonwealth Bank will enable users to purchase and trade cryptocurrencies using its app, marking the first time a major Australian bank has taken this step.
On Wednesday, Australia’s largest bank announced a partnership with U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange Gemini and blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis to offer the service to its 6.5 million CommBank app users.
Customers will have the option of purchasing up to 10 cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin.
Important role in crypto
“We are confident we can take a significant role in the crypto space by meeting a clearly emerging client need for competence, security, and confidence in a crypto trading platform,” CBA Chief Executive Officer Matt Comyn said in quotes by The Guardian.
Commonwealth stated that it conducted research on its customers and discovered that many had shown an interest in crypto assets or were actually trading them on exchanges.
According to Comyn, customers have voiced concern about some of the cryptocurrency services available today, including the friction associated with third-party exchanges, the possibility of fraud, and a lack of trust in some new suppliers.
“This is why we see this as an opportunity to provide our clients with a trusted and secure experience,” Comyn said.
Despite CBA entering the cryptocurrency space, Dr. Dimitrios Salampasis, a Swinburne Business School lecturer on fintech entrepreneurship, said it was no surprise.
Salampasis explained that the bank was attempting to get a first-mover advantage in Australia, with the intention of bringing more respectability to the bitcoin market.
A game-changer
“Coming from a systemic and the largest bank in Australia, this is unquestionably a game changer,” he explained.
Salampasis added it will ideally bring credibility, further harmonization, increased regulation, and a reduction in debanking, which has been a significant pain point for all bitcoin businesses in particular.
A Senate select committee report on fintech services in Australia, released this month, identified many cryptocurrency businesses that had been rejected by dozens of Australian financial institutions, including the Bitcoin Babe exchange.
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