New York Digital Investments Group (NYDIG) and payments firm NCR have announced a partnership that will bring about 650 banks in the United States to offer their customers the option to buy bitcoin.
Digital asset management firm NYDIG is a subsidiary of Stone Ridge Asset Management. The agreement between NYDIG and NCR will allow American banks and credit cooperatives to offer cryptocurrency trading to their clients, which total about 24 million people across the country.
Custodian services will be provided directly by NYDIG, charging commissions for conducting transactions. This means that banks and financial institutions will not store digital assets on their own, which will allow them to avoid difficulties with regulators.
NCR Digital Banking President Douglas Brown said that the company is confident in the benefits of cryptocurrencies and is carefully studying the possibilities of their strategic use. Brown believes that the adoption of cryptocurrencies by banking clients will be gradual. He explained that now conducting banking transactions several times a day is a common thing, and in order to conduct transactions with cryptocurrencies, people need to figure out what it is.
Patrick Sells, head of banking solutions at NYDIG, added that banks will charge lower fees for transactions in bitcoin compared to those paid by customers today. At the same time, banks will be able to determine the amount of payment for the transaction themselves.
According to a December 2020 survey by Cornerstone Advisors, nearly two-thirds of cryptocurrency holders are willing to use their bank’s services to buy bitcoin. As retail and institutional clients see their interest in digital assets, many banks are beginning to wonder how they can be provided with the opportunity to enter the cryptocurrency market.
So, in May, the Swiss banking giant UBS Group, along with the American bank Wells Fargo, expressed their readiness to provide tools for investing in crypto assets so that their clients can diversify their investment portfolio. In the coming months, clients of brokerage company Interactive Brokers will also be able to trade cryptocurrencies using this platform.
