Traditional banks are now flexing their muscles and launching encryption-related services. This shift coincided with the Bitcoin price hitting a record high in December. In the second half of this year, they seem to have generally begun to change their attitudes towards cryptocurrencies.

Source: Img

Banks may have been paying close attention to digital assets for some time, but they have been cautious in public. Now, they seem to have joined the general shift in encryption technology in the second half of 2020, including payment giant PayPal and hedge fund tycoons including Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller.

Some initial big moves have taken place from technologically advanced Switzerland and Singapore, and the industry is seeing more and more lenders showing their preference for crypto currencies.

Singapore's DBS Bank recently announced that its crypto trading and custody platform (10% owned by the national stock exchange SGX) is ready to go live, making it a leader.

In the same week that DBS Bank announced the news, the Swiss Digital Exchange SDX stated that it is working with the Japanese bank SBI Holdings to establish a digital asset exchange in Singapore, although this will not be ready until early 2022.

An important milestone in October was that Gazprom bank, a subsidiary of the Russian Energy Group, launched encrypted custody in Switzerland. The bank uses institutional-specific custody technology from Swiss company METACO, which is working closely with core banking software provider Avaloq.

Later, the Spanish bank BBVA also announced that it would set up its encryption business base in Switzerland and use METACO's custody technology. BBVA declined to comment on the plan, and sources said the plan will be ready in January 2021.

Another leading bank that stood out was London-based Standard Chartered Bank, which announced a crypto custody partnership with Northern Trust in the United States.

CoinDesk also learned that Standard Chartered Bank is cooperating with five or six of the largest trading desks and exchanges in the crypto sector, including LMAX and ErisX, to establish a post-trade and settlement system, which is also scheduled to be launched early next year.