The top eight financial institutions with an interest in Bitcoin and crypto have a whopping $27 trillion in combined assets under management.
Here is at least $27 trillion of assets managed by major U.S. financial institutions that are also “actively” seeking to provide clients with exposure to Bitcoin and crypto.
On June 26, CoinShares chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors highlighted at least eight major financial institutions that have signaled moves in the digital assets space, including BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF filing and Fidelity’s crypto wealth management solutions.
Others include JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, BNY Mellon, Invesco and Bank of America.
“Many of the largest financial institutions in the US are actively working to provide access to Bitcoin and more,” she noted, adding that there is a whopping $27 trillion in assets under management between them.
Earlier this month, BlackRock’s June 16 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund application led to a wave of filings for similar products, boosting a narrative that suggests “institutions are coming” for Bitcoin.
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BTC price reached a 2023-high of $31,185 on June 24 amid surging confidence, according to CoinGecko.
Demirors however noted that while “the institutions are coming,” it’s still more of a trickle than a wave. “We’re seeing the bridges being built in real-time,” she added.
It should be noted that the $27 trillion figure is an estimation of the total assets under management across the eight institutions and only a tiny portion of this would likely be allocated to crypto investments.
Nevertheless, Reflexivity Research co-founder, Will Clemente, still echoed Demiror’s sentiment, pointing out that Bitcoin’s market capitalization is less than $600 billion.
“Between HSBC, Blackrock, Fidelity, and Schwab we are talking about $25 trillion in assets under management that will soon be enabled to buy Bitcoin.”
Institutional investors are already showing more interest in Bitcoin-related funds. The ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF (BITO) saw its largest weekly inflow for a year pushing AUM over $1 billion, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Related: BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF ‘is the best thing to happen’ to BTC, or is it?
Earlier this week, Federal Reserve Board of Governors member Michelle Bowman criticized the absence of a crypto regulatory framework claiming that the uncertainty over the asset class traps institutions in a “supervisory void.”
Binance Australia head Ben Rose claimed the exchange got less than a day’s warning from its payments partner before it was “cut off” from the local banking system in May.
In the middle of the night, Binance Australia’s team was suddenly told it would be “cut off” from Australia’s banking system. There was no prior warning, consultation or redress, the exchange’s regional manager Ben Rose has claimed.
On May 18, Binance Australian announced its dollar services were suspended after its payments provider Zepto was told to stop support for Binance from Cuscal — Zepto’s partner banking and payments provider.
Rose told an audience at the Australian Blockchain Week on June 26 that the move impacted around 1 million customers based in Australia.
“We received 24 hours’ notice of debanking at 11:30 pm in the evening, that was later turned into 12 hours, and so we had our banking cut off.”
“The reasons given were not entirely clear and didn’t look that great in the media,” said Rose. Previously, a Cuscal spokesperson declined to comment on Binance Australia-related matters to Cointelegraph but did point to crypto-related “scams and fraud.”
The limited information initially worried Binance customers but “that tone changed pretty quickly” when it became clear it was the wider local crypto industry “impacted by these banking changes,” Rose said.
The same day Cuscal offboarded Binance, “Big Four” bank Westpac said it would begin trials that block payments to crypto exchanges. Less than a month later Commonwealth Bank, another major Australian bank, started similar crypto-related payment blocks.
Speaking to Cointelegraph after his on-stage interview, Rose declined to provide any extra information about Binance Australia’s search for an alternate third-party payments provider as discussions were ongoing.
Rose said there are other providers but admitted that Cuscal “bank the majority of this industry.”
Australia’s crypto industry has long relied on crypto-friendly payments providers including Monoova, Zai and Zepto — all of who are partnered with Cuscal to access the local banking system.
Cuscal-backed payment rails are used by Binance’s peer crypto exchanges including BTC Markets, Kraken Australia, Coin Jar, Independent Reserve and many other crypto-related fintech firms.
Related: Don’t follow the US: Blockchain Aus CEO hammers ‘regulation by enforcement’
On stage, Rose claimed losing access to their banking partner “hasn’t had a real impact on the business.” He added Binance users are “using other methods,” likely the purchases and deposits to bank cards that are still supported on the platform.
He stressed the need to work with regulators and the banking sector and the possibility of implementing “sensible licensing” for the industry.
“We would call for Australia to move relatively quickly because jurisdictions all around the world are now moving forward,” Rose said.
