The CBA said that its banking app would handle ten crypto assets, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is planning to provide cryptocurrency trading services for its CommBank app’s 6.5 million customers.
The CBA will be Australia’s first bank to embrace cryptocurrency, and Blockchain Australia believes it is “inevitable” that the country’s other ‘big four banks, including National Australia Bank (NAB), Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ), and Westpac, will follow suit shortly.
According to a Nov. 3 release, the CBA is launching its crypto services in partnership with the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange and blockchain research company Chainalysis. The bank will begin testing the service with a small number of clients in the coming weeks, before extending it out to all customers in 2022.
Ten crypto assets will be available in the company’s banking app, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).
According to Steve Vallas, CEO of Blockchain Australia, this step is “extraordinarily significant” since Australia’s top four banks “underpin our national and worldwide image as the destination of a financial service.”
“The confidence that this affords local players in the digital asset market will be dwarfed by the signal that this sends to the rest of the world that Australia should be a destination for bitcoin and digital asset adoption.”
Vallas argues that the quick expansion and acceptance of cryptocurrency has “changed the risk of the large banks retaining a wait-and-see attitude” to a danger of “inaction” and being left behind. Vallas thinks it is just a matter of time until the rest of Australia’s big banks establish their own cryptocurrency offerings.
“It is a foregone conclusion that other banks will follow suit. Clarity is growing in the local regulatory environment, as businesses and governments address problems such as licensing straight on. That stumbling blocks to action and involvement are being eliminated,” he said.
Caroline Bowler, CEO of local cryptocurrency exchange BTC Markets, mirrored Vallas’ thoughts, stating that “with regulation imminent and the country’s main bank permitting it, the floodgates have opened for more hunger from conventional finance.”
“The CBA’s decision is both thrilling and predictable. It’s another red-letter day for cryptocurrency, and it’s as if Australia has suddenly stepped up its game. We’ve been positioned as a laggard for most of this time, but with our biggest bank, we’re going into a leading position internationally.” Dave Abner, Gemini’s Global Head of Business Development, said that his company was “glad” to partner with CBA to deliver world-class cryptocurrency services.
“Gemini’s institutional-grade security and proactive regulatory approach, along with the exponential expansion of digital assets globally, positions this cooperation to establish a new standard for banks and financial platforms in Australia and around the world,” he added.
However, not everyone was thrilled with CBA’s relationship, with Adrian Przelozny, CEO of Australian cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, expressing his disappointment at the bank’s decision to collaborate with an international corporation.
“It’s regrettable that the CBA chose a foreign player and made no attempt to connect with local players. We are currently contacting other Australian banks,” Przelozny added.
On Oct. 15, Cointelegraph reported that Allan Flynn, a Canberra-based Bitcoin trader, resolved his first case against ANZ for debunking him in 2018 and 2019 owing to his work as a Digital Currency Exchange (DCE).
While ANZ denied culpability, it provided him the opportunity to reapply for a bank account, indicating that the bank is more receptive to cryptocurrency than it was two to three years ago. Flynn is also pursuing a similar complaint against Westpac.
Flynn informed Cointelegraph in response to today’s news that the Australian crypto scene is fast changing: “There are a lot of things happening in the Australian Bitcoin space at the moment; you have the Senate inquiry, ANZ’s acknowledgment of a legitimate human rights issue that needs to be addressed in my complaint, AUSTRAC’s extraordinary statement on de-banking last Friday, and now CBA’s digital currency plans.” “I’m just here pleading for my legally protected human rights in the hope that it makes a difference,” he continued.
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