The Swiss arm of Spain’s second largest bank, BBVA Switzerland, will offer retail customers the opportunity to bitcoin (BTC) to invest. That can be read in a announcement which the bank published yesterday.
BBVA Switzerland has been testing for six months. A select group of Swiss customers was given the opportunity to buy bitcoin directly from the bank and also keep it there. The CEO of BBVA Switzerland, Alfonso Gómez, explains why the tests are an important part:
“This gradual rollout has enabled BBVA Switzerland to test the service’s operations, strengthen security, and most importantly, detect high demand among investors for crypto or digital assets as a way to diversify their portfolios. , despite their volatility and high risk,”
And that question turned out to be there! The CEO further states that he expects crypto to be a world that “will have a major impact on financial services.”
For now, only customers in Switzerland can buy bitcoin through the bank’s app. However, BBVA makes it clear that it wants to add more cryptocurrencies as well as expand to other countries. Expanding the service to other countries is a difficult task given the different regulations that countries have regarding crypto.
The first signs that BBVA, a bank with more than $800 billion in assets under management, wanted to get involved in crypto were heard as early as December 2020. Then anonymous sources reported to CoinDesk that the bank wanted to enter the crypto space.
For many crypto enthusiasts, the fact that banks offer crypto services is contradictory. This is because Bitcoin was once invented to make banks redundant. Still, banks can be an important stepping stone for wider adoption of crypto. Also our own ING Bank would now be engaged in crypto-related services in several areas.
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