America’s Oldest Banking Giant, BNY Mellon, to Hold and Transfer Bitcoin & Other Cryptos Including Stablecoins

Bank of New York Mellon Corp., the oldest bank in the US, which boasts of $2 trillion assets under management (AUM), has finally jumped on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. This move is made following a shift in sentiments and regulatory clarity regarding cryptocurrencies and because “Digital assets are the future.”

“We’re experiencing heightened interest from current clients who are seeking exposure to digital assets,” Mike Demissie, the company executive who heads its digital assets unit, told Forbes.

“We are also seeing new demand from prospective clients, particularly digital native companies in the digital asset space, who are looking for BNY Mellon’s core investment services.”

The custody bank revealed on Thursday that it would hold, transfer, and issue bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its clients, first reported by the WSJ. The bank is already in talks with its clients to have their digital currencies in its custody.

“Digital assets are becoming part of the mainstream,” said Roman Regelman, chief executive of BNY Mellon’s asset-servicing and digital businesses.

The bank eventually plans to treat digital currencies like any other assets through its platform, which is currently a prototype.

BNY Mellon claims it to be the financial infrastructure’s “first multi-asset digital custody and administration platform” for both traditional and digital assets.

Besides Bitcoin and other cryptos, BNY Mellon will also cover stablecoins, tokenized securities, real assets, and eventually even central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) in its digital asset unit. Regelman said,

“Growing client demand for digital assets, maturity of advanced solutions, and improved regulatory clarity present a tremendous opportunity for us to extend our current service offerings to this emerging field.”

The offering is pending approvals and is expected to start later this year.