Bank of New York Mellon Corp., a 238-year-old bank based in the U.S., is now allowing select U.S. clients to hold and transfer Bitcoin and Ether, the bank announced in a press release on Tuesday.
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Fast facts
- BNY Mellon will store private keys of crypto wallets to help hold and transfer Bitcoin and Ether on behalf of a limited group of asset managers, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
- The announcement is a notable event signifying the growing acceptance of digital assets amongst the traditional banking sector in the U.S., the WSJ says.
- Earlier this fall, the New York State Department of Financial Services approved BNY Mellon to receive cryptocurrency assets from customers.
- According to a survey sponsored by Mellon, 91% of institutional investors are interested in investing in tokenized assets, while 41% already hold crypto in their portfolios.
- In 2021, the bank formed an enterprise, the Digital Assets Unit, to develop digital asset technology solutions and a bridge between traditional and digital asset custody.
- BNY Mellon is the largest custodian bank in the world, with US$43 trillion assets under custody and US$1.9 trillion under management across 35 countries as of June 2022, according to its website.
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