The Commonwealth Bank has officially announced that it will become the first of Australia’s four major banks to allow its customers to purchase, hold and sell specific cryptocurrencies via their online banking app.

The announcement means that the banks 6.5 million customers will be able to access up to 10 different cryptocurrency coins such as; bitcoin, bitcoin cash, Ethereum and litecoin via a new feature made available in the app.

A pilot version of the crypto exchange will be made available for customers to access in the coming weeks while the bank plans to roll out more features to customers from next year.

The new feature has been designed with the help of the world’s largest regulated crypto exchanges, Gemini.

The announcement means that the Commonwealth Bank is one of only a small number of banks around the world who have committed to cryptocurrency in such a major way and the first of the four major banks in Australia to do so.

One of the Commonwealth Banks main objectives for making the change is to appeal to young Australians and to make it easier for CBA to compete with rivals such as; Square and PayPal who offer cryptocurrency integration.

Research conducted by the Commonwealth Bank has discovered a large number of its customers want to access crypto assets as an investment and are already buying, selling and holding crypto assets through a variety of crypto exchanges.

The Commonwealth Bank’s CEO Matt Comyn told the media that the huge increase in demand for digital currencies from the banks customers creates both challenges and opportunities for the financial services sector, which has seen a significant number of new players and business models innovating in this area.

“We believe we can play an important role in crypto to address what’s clearly a growing customer need and provide capability, security and confidence in a crypto trading platform. In looking at ways that we can support our customers, we have made the strategic decision to form an exclusive partnership in Australia with Gemini, a global leader with strong security and a track-record of serving large institutions. CBA will leverage Gemini’s crypto exchange and custody service and integrate it into the CommBank app,” says Matt Comyn CEO of The Commonwealth Bank.

The Commonwealth Bank has announced that it will be partnering with Chainalysis, a global leader in blockchain data and analytics who will assist compliance teams with monitoring and mitigate the threat of crime via the crypto asset exchanges.

The collaboration between the CBA and Chainalysis is important as customers of the bank have voiced their concern regarding some of the crypto services in the market today, particularly in regards to the friction of using third party exchanges, the risk of fraud, and the lack of trust in some new providers.

“Financial institutions like CBA play an integral role in growing cryptocurrency adoption safely. We remain committed to reimagining banking and will continue to bring more functionality into the CommBank app including investing and shopping,” said Michael Gronager, CEO and co-founder of Chainalysis.

Why Is Cryptocurrency So Popular?

In recent years cryptocurrency has continued to rise in popularity, here are a few reasons that can explain it’s ever increasing popularity.

Cryptocurrencies Aren’t Associated with World Governments – The fact that cryptocurrencies aren’t associated with a world government means that the price of cryptocurrencies have the potential to remain stable even when there is turmoil in a specific country. A large number of investors believe that cryptocurrency is as a great way to protect your wealth and this is a major reason why cryptocurrency has continued to rise in popularity in recent years. The potential that cryptocurrencies could be safer than some official government currencies is very appealing.

Cryptocurrency Is A Very Secure Form of Payment – We all know how hard cyber security has become in recent years. Protecting your identity and money is super important. Using cryptocurrency to pay for items online is a lot safer than many other traditional payment options. If you’re someone who is worried about cybersecurity issues, then deciding to use cryptocurrency might be a great idea.

Cryptocurrency’s Fees Are Pretty Low – One of the biggest reasons why cryptocurrency is so popular is because there are very few fees associated with using it. When you’re using various other types of online payment options, you often incur large fees. The super low fees that you have to deal with when using various cryptocurrencies will be a much better deal for you. It makes sense for many people to use cryptocurrencies to pay for items online and lots of people also find it to be safe.

There Is The Potential To Make A Lot of Profit – The potential to make a profit is another major reason why people get involved with cryptocurrencies. If you are strategic and purchase bitcoin while it’s at a low price, then you can potentially profit when that price rises. Lots of people who invested in cryptocurrencies before they become super popular end up making huge profits.

It’s Becoming Easier To Use Cryptocurrency – Overtime cryptocurrency has become easier to use, this is due to the fact that more online companies are adopting it. Each year more and more websites are starting to accept cryptocurrencies as payment and this will only become more predominant in the future.

It’s also fascinating to mention that there are now things such as cryptocurrency debit cards popping up in certain places. This might not be widespread right now but it is something that is very much happening.

As cryptocurrency continues to become more mainstream, it’s going to reach more and more people. This results in an increase in the awareness and an overall surge in popularity. More people understand that this is an option now and many of the questions about what cryptocurrency is are being answered. Lots of people nowadays have at least a bit of knowledge about what things such as Bitcoin are and this makes it more desirable.

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