Custody services aren’t the most compelling corner of the crypto ecosystem, but 21st-century solutions for storing and safekeeping digital assets are critical if cryptocurrencies are to achieve widespread adoption. For that reason, Cowen Inc.’s recent announcement that the 103-year old United States investment bank wants to hold crypto on behalf of asset managers and hedge funds is noteworthy, especially when coupled with similar statements from traditional bank giants such as Bank of New York Mellon and Deutsche Bank earlier this year. Is it too early to speak of this as a movement? “This is absolutely a trend,” Raphael Polansky, managing …

The recent tumultuous price action for cryptocurrencies seems to be providing ample opportunity for popular anti-crypto bank HSBC to double down on its negative stance towards virtual currencies. Speaking to Reuters on Monday, HSBC CEO Noel Quinn said that the bank was not interested in running a crypto trading desk or offering cryptocurrency-related investment packages to its clients. Quinn identified volatility as a major reason for the bank’s decision despite the emerging trend of other major financial institutions announcing plans to open up crypto investment avenues for their clients. Earlier in May, investment banking giant Wells Fargo announced plans to …

Tony McLaughlin, managing director of transaction banking at Citibank, is of the opinion that digital money is the current theater for another paradigm-shifting format war. Speaking during the ongoing Finnovex Virtual Summit, McLaughlin said that digital money appeared odds-on to become the future of money. However, he argued that digital money itself was still in the process of significant evolution along three lines — financial institutions, fintech and crypto. According to McLaughlin, tokenization will play an important role in determining the eventual winner of the digital money format war. Detailing his analysis during his presentation on Monday, McLaughlin identified issues …

Ben Hunt, founder of Second Foundation Partners and lead author of the Epsilon Theory blog, is convinced institutional adoption poses an existential threat to Bitcoin's identity as an instrument of financial freedom. As investment funds, banks and tech companies continue getting involved in the space, Bitcoin's (BTC) fundamental properties — permissionless access and censorship resistance — are becoming increasingly marginalized, Hunt told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. “What we are seeing is the Facebook-ization of Bitcoin. And it becomes absolutely controlled and in service to Wall Street and the government,” said Hunt. According to Hunt, institutions have created “securitized,” “permissioned” …

Trust in state-backed digital currencies will be “immeasurably higher” than trust in public cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), Russian former Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev argued. Medvedev, the incumbent deputy chief of Russia’s Security Council, spoke on cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies, or CBDCs, at the Saint Petersburg International Legal Forum on Tuesday, local news agency TASS reported. The official pointed out the crucial role of digital transparency associated with emerging financial technologies like public cryptocurrencies. “It’s time to recognize their importance,” Medvedev noted, also stressing the role of new digital forms of money like central bank digital currencies. “It is …

Switzerland-based cryptocurrency bank Sygnum is launching custody and banking services for Internet Computer (ICP) utility tokens. Sygnum announced on Tuesday that ICP holders will be able to deposit their tokens with the bank’s institutional-grade segregated wallets. The firm said that it is the first bank to offer storage for ICP utility tokens, which debuted trading on May 11. In a second phase of rolling out ICP support, Sygnum plans to launch a suite of banking services for the token, including spot trading as well as options trading at a later date. The bank also expects to offer Sygnum Lombard loans …

The United States Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation is looking for information and public comments on banks' cryptocurrency-related activities. The FDIC is the major provider of deposit insurance to U.S. commercial and savings banks, originally created to address bank runs during the Great Depression. On Monday, the FDIC officially announced a request for public input to get more information on the industry and consumers’ interests in the market as well as the role of banks in the digital asset ecosystem. “Banks are increasingly exploring several roles in the emerging digital asset ecosystem, such as being custodians, reserve holders, issuers, and exchange …

Amid the ongoing concerns over Bitcoin’s (BTC) energy consumption, a new study states that the traditional banking system consumes much more energy than the Bitcoin network. Michael Novogratz’s cryptocurrency firm, Galaxy Digital, released a report Friday titled “On Bitcoin’s Energy Consumption: A Quantitative Approach to a Subjective Question,” providing open-source access to its methodology and calculations. Compiled by Galaxy’s mining arm, the study estimates Bitcoin’s annual electricity consumption to stand at 113.89 terawatts per hour, including energy for miner demand, miner power consumption, pool power consumption and node power consumption. This amount is at least two times lower than the …

The Bank of England's deputy governor Jon Cunliffe has argued that a sea change in the issuance and circulation of public and private monies could make general access to a digital form of central bank money crucial for ensuring financial stability in future. In a speech at the OMFIF Digital Money Institute in London, Cunliffe reflected on past, present and future trends in the widespread use of private money issued by commercial banks, noting that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated existing trends away from public to private money for everyday payments. About 70% of respondents to a recent Bank of …

DBS Private Bank, one of the biggest wealth managers in Asia outside China, has launched a cryptocurrency trust solution amid growing demand for digital assets. After setting up its own crypto exchange in December 2020, the Singaporean banking giant is now expanding its crypto services via its wholly-owned trust company DBS Trustee, The Business Times reports Friday. The new crypto trust solution allows the company’s private banking clients to invest, custody and manage cryptocurrencies. The trust offering supports four cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), which are the sole digital assets hosted on the DBS …

This weekly roundup of news from Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong attempts to curate the industry’s most important news, including influential projects, changes in the regulatory landscape and enterprise blockchain integrations. Memecoin culture clash Feed Every Gorilla (FEG) was a source of drama after memes were posted of Chinese President Xi Jinping. The token claims to use its revenue to take care of gorillas and had been gaining attention among animal-related tokens, amassing a market cap of over $1 billion. Some Chinese community members found the memes offensive and, after not finding support from the team, began to abandon …

The government of Bahrain, the third-richest Arab country, is working with American investment bank JPMorgan Chase on a digital currency settlement pilot. The Central Bank of Bahrain officially announced Tuesday that the bank is now collaborating with JPMorgan and the Arab Banking Corporation BSC, or Bank ABC, in a pilot scheme to introduce an instant cross-border payment solution based on digital currency technology. Aiming to cut settlement processing time, the new digital currency pilot will involve transferring funds from and to Bahrain in U.S. dollars for payments from buyers and suppliers. The central bank emphasized that it could move forward …