India’s Unicas crypto bank opened its third physical branch last week in New Delhi. Previous locations were launched in Jamnagar and Jaipur. Unicas reportedly allows customers to access fiat and crypto services at the bank and provides digital loans using crypto holdings as collateral. The bank aims to launch 50 branches across the country by the end of the year and 50 more by the end of 2022. Its plans may be stifled, however, due to a crypto bill that is awaiting consideration in India’s parliament. The Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill is intended to "prohibit all …

The world’s largest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), is at a defining moment in history, according to analysis from United States investment bank Citigroup. Bitcoin is now at a “tipping point” to either become the preferred currency for international trade or face a “speculative implosion,” Citi analysts reportedly said. According to a Reuters report Monday, Citi analysts are confident that Bitcoin is on the cusp of going mainstream. According to the report, Bitcoin’s tremendous potential has been fueled by recent big Bitcoin moves by companies like Tesla and Mastercard. Citi analysts wrote, “There are a host of risks and obstacles that stand …

Everyone knows the story. When the first block of Bitcoin (BTC) was mined, the protocol itself entered a world of grave economic uncertainty. Not long before the market would hit its lowest point of the 2009 recession, Bitcoin was quietly created, dropped like a life raft alongside a then-sinking economy. The now infamous phrase “Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks” was cribbed from the headlines, immortalized in code in the origin story of one of the most compelling, innovative, best-performing assets of the last decade. But Bitcoin did not immediately take root beyond a small community of true …

Bordier & Cie, a Swiss financial institution operating for more than 170 years, has announced a partnership with digital asset bank Sygnum to allow its customers to purchase crypto assets. The integration with Sygnum’s business-to-business banking platform allows Bordier’s clients to purchase Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Tezos (XTZ). The announcement describes the move as “lay[ing] the foundation for a broader offering of regulated digital asset products and services,” including options and tokenized asset classes. Bordier managing partner Evrard Bordier said: “By partnering with Sygnum Bank, we are providing our clients with a one-stop, integrated solution while …

Last month, digital asset entity Anchorage received a bank charter from the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC. This month, the outfit has added $80 million in funds. "Today, we are pleased to announce that Anchorage has raised an $80 million Series C, led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, with participation from a16z, Blockchain Capital, Lux, and Indico," a Thursday blog post announcement from Anchorage says, adding: "This new capital will allow us to rapidly scale to meet the rising demand for participation in the digital asset space, particularly among corporations and traditional financial …

In an announcement on Wednesday, VersaBank said it plans to launch a digital currency called VCAD, which will reportedly be backed by Canadian dollars deposited with the bank. The Canadian bank claimed that VCAD would effectively be "the first digital currency to represent a fiat currency" issued and backed by a North American bank. VersaBank said it had partnered with Canada Stablecorp, a joint venture between investment fund manager 3iQ and blockchain firm Mavennet, to launch the "stablecoin." The bank plans to make VCAD available to the public “in the coming months” by issuing the digital currency to its “financial …

The State Bank of India, or SBI — a major Indian government-owned bank — is looking to improve cross-border payments with a blockchain solution by United States investment bank JPMorgan Chase. According to a Tuesday report by The Economic Times, the SBI has joined Liink, a new blockchain-based interbank data network developed by JPMorgan. By integrating the technology, the bank expects to reduce transaction costs and improve cross-border payments for its customers. SBI deputy managing director Venkat Nageswar said that the bank has already gone live on Liink. “We are excited to be the first bank in India to go …

China’s central bank is pushing exposure to its ongoing national digital currency pilot by enlisting two major private banks in the project. According to a Monday Bloomberg report, MYbank and WeBank will help the People's Bank of China extend its user exposure in the ongoing pilots of its central bank digital currency, the digital yuan. As part of the integration, MYbank’s service will soon be introduced to the PBoC’s digital yuan app, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. The e-wallets by MYbank and WeBank will reportedly have exactly the same functions as those from the six state-owned lenders in …

Image a scenario where you need different messengers to send different types of messages — for example, WhatsApp for text messages, Viber for audio, Telegram for video, etc. Rather inconvenient, right? But this is exactly what happens in finance: There is no way to send both digital fiat money and cryptocurrency from a bank account without extra steps. It’s not affecting the masses just yet, but after the issuing of national digital currencies, or central bank digital currencies, in the next few years over the world, the situation is about to become complicated. We need to start looking for a …

Reports that legacy banks like BNY Mellon and Deutsche Bank are becoming active in the cryptocurrency space, including through custody services, should come as welcome news for crypto investors. Lost or misplaced private keys, after all, are a bane of the crypto world — just recall the Welshman who lost 7,500 Bitcoin (BTC), worth about $400 million today, when he landfilled his PC’s hard drive, forgetting it was the sole repository of his private key. Meanwhile, traditional banks are society’s safekeepers par excellence, so maybe they can improve the crypto user experience with regard to private keys at the very …

Analysts at American investment bank JPMorgan Chase have delivered another skeptical statement on Bitcoin (BTC), arguing that its current price is much higher than its fair value. In a regular memo for investors, JPMorgan argued that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are an “economic side show” and the poorest hedge against a decline in equity prices, Reuters reports Friday. The analysts said that the mainstream adoption of Bitcoin increases its correlation with cyclical assets, which makes it a less attractive asset for portfolio diversification: “Crypto assets continue to rank as the poorest hedge for major drawdowns in equities, with questionable diversification benefits …

Global banking institutions have been expressing more interest in Bitcoin (BTC) as the cryptocurrency consistently breaks new all-time highs, according to a new report. Tom Robinson, co-founder of major British crypto firm Elliptic, told The Telegraph on Wednesday that his company saw a massive surge in Bitcoin-related inquiries from global banks. The executive noted a wave of Bitcoin-associated demand from United States-based banking institutions over the past two months. According to Robinson, several financial institutions in the U.S. “are seriously considering launching some type of cryptocurrency service.” British banks were the most reserved in terms of the demand’s uptick, the …