World’s Largest Custodian Bank BNY Mellon Launches Crypto Custody Service
Banking giant BNY Mellon announced that its Digital Asset Custody platform is now live in the US, with bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) on the menu.
The bank said on Tuesday that,
“With select clients now able to hold and transfer bitcoin and ether, this milestone reinforces BNY Mellon’s commitment to support client demand for a trusted provider of both traditional and digital asset servicing.”
The announcement stated that BNY Mellon has been working with major fintechs, naming Fireblocks and Chainalysis, whose technology the bank utilized “in order to meet the present and future security and compliance needs of clients across the digital asset space.”
Robin Vince, Chief Executive Officer and President at BNY Mellon, was quoted as stating that the bank is aiming to help drive the financial industry forward, adding:
“Touching more than 20% of the world’s investable assets, BNY Mellon has the scale to reimagine financial markets through blockchain technology and digital assets.”
Roman Regelman, CEO of Securities Services & Digital at BNY Mellon, further added that the company will continue its work in the digital asset space and collaborate with fintechs.
To this, Caroline Butler, CEO of Custody Services at BNY Mellon, added that,
“As the world’s largest custodian, BNY Mellon is the natural provider to create a safe and secure Digital Asset Custody Platform for institutional clients.”
BNY Mellon also noted a recent survey it sponsored and which found significant institutional demand for “a resilient, scalable financial infrastructure” that can house both traditional and digital assets. At the time of the survey, 91% of institutional investors said they were interested in investing in tokenized products, 41% held crypto in their portfolio, and an additional 15% said they planed to hold crypto in their portfolios within the next two to five years.
BNY Mellon formed a Digital Assets Unit in 2021 to develop solutions for digital asset technology, sharing its plans to launch a multi-asset platform that bridges digital and traditional asset custody. And 2021 was a big year for the company, crypto-wise.
In February last year, it was reported that the bank would hold, transfer, and issue bitcoin and other unspecified cryptoassets on behalf of its asset-management clients later that year.
In March 2021, it joined other investors and made a strategic investment in digital asset storage, transfer, and issuing platform Fireblocks.
In June last year, as reported, BNY Mellon was reported to be creating a new Dublin-based unit that would offer digital assets to their clients as part of their Digital Innovation Hub. The company would act as the custodian for all sorts of assets, including cryptoassets, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Then in July, New York Mellon Corp. joined another US-based financial giant State Street in order to develop “a platform to support the entire digital asset life cycle.”
Per its press release, BNY Mellon delivers wealth management and investment services in 35 countries. As of June 30 this year, it had $43 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration, and $1.9 trillion in assets under management
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Learn more:
– BNY Mellon’s Crypto Plan In Ireland
– BNY Mellon Doubles Down On Its Bitcoin Plans, Invests In Fireblocks
– America’s Oldest Bank, BNY Mellon, Doubles Down On Its Crypto Strategy
– America’s Oldest Bank, BNY Mellon, Goes Bitcoin
