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Highlights
- The CBA has partnered with crypto exchange Gemini to roll out crypto services for its 6.4 million app customers
- In September, the CBA and other banks came under fire for the practice of ‘debanking’, which is when banks ban customers whose businesses are associated with cryptocurrency.
- CommBank app will offer 10 different cryptocurrencies to the app’s 6.5 million users
Aussie Banks are changing their perspective of cryptocurrency. If you are a crypto fan and up to speed with all the new wrinkles in this space, you already know by now that the Commonwealth Bank (CBA) has become the first bank in Australia to offer crypto services to its customers.
In the latest update, CBA has purchased a minority stake in Gemini Trust Company LLC, which is a regulated crypto exchange. Through its partnership with Gemini, CBA is offering a crypto service for its 6.5 million app customers.
The App’s Background
The CBA partnered with Gemini, as well as blockchain research group Chainalysis to roll out crypto services via its CommBank app.
The project was developed with the help of tech investors – Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss – who are incidentally amongst the first crypto billionaires and the founders of crypto exchange, Gemini.
A release by the CBA says it was compelled to release a crypto service due to public demand. Additionally, the CBA says a number of their customers were already using other crypto apps leading the bank to develop its own crypto service.
In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg, CEO Matt Comyn mentioned: -
“Cryptocurrencies are very volatile and speculative, but the bigger risk banks face is not being part of adoptions in the technology underpinning them and the insatiable demand from customers to trade them.”
A Big Change
The launch, which is set for a pilot over the coming weeks, marks a turnaround for the banking industry in Australia, which has garnered criticism in the past for its dismissive stance against crypto assets.
In September, the CBA and the other big banks - National Australia Bank (NAB), Westpac Banking Corp (WBC) and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) -came under fire for the practice of ‘debanking’, which is when banks ban customers whose businesses are is associated with cryptocurrency.
Michaela Juric, the founder of ‘Bitcoin Babe’ – a peer-to-peer brokerage – made headlines in September for calling out Australian banks over the practice of debanking.
Juric told an inquest that she had been debanked by 91 different financial institutions.
Banks have previously defended this stance, which they say is based on their belief that the crypto space attracts criminal activity.
CBA’s Turnaround
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has admitted that they had been researching the crypto space as well as their customers’ needs and concluded that there is indeed a market for crypto services.
As a result, the CommBank app will offer 10 different cryptocurrencies to the app’s 6.5 million users. The 10 cryptos, which users will soon be able to trade, include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
The move has been touted as a turning point for the banking industry with expectations that other banks will follow suit.
