By Landon Manning
Through a partnership with Fidelity National Information Services (FIS), NYDIG has launched a program to enable hundreds of banks across the United States to begin offering bitcoin services directly in customer accounts.
NYDIG, a subsidiary of the multi-billion dollar asset management firm Stone Ridge, went public with these plans on May 5. NYDIG will be holding the actual custody of the bitcoin through the program, and managing the smooth operation of all trades, while FIS will use its substantial ties in the banking community to forge connections to lenders and banks big and small. Already, hundreds have signed up, from some of the largest in the nation to local chains with only a handful of branches each.
Patrick Sells, head of bank solutions at NYDIG, said that “What we’re doing is making it simple for everyday Americans and corporations to be able to buy bitcoin through their existing bank relationships,” in an interview with CNBC. “If I’m using my mobile application to do all of my banking, now I have the ability to buy, sell and hold bitcoin.”
This move has been brewing in the works from NYDIG for some time now. On April 20, the company announced its intentions to “buy the dip” during a momentary lull in bitcoin prices, claiming in a company email that selloffs were caused only by overleveraged traders, and that the volatility of bitcoin enabled an opportunity for significant gains. The following day, NYDIG announced the existence of a formal partnership with FIS to provide bitcoin access to clients, although the details of the partnership were still kept under wraps at this stage.
With the program to begin seriously helping banks with the world of bitcoin underway, NYDIG is already releasing additional bombshells on its commitment to sweeping, radical change in the world of cryptocurrency. On May 7, the company announced that John Dalby, chief financial officer of Bridgewater Associates, was joining the team to offer his significant financial expertise to this initiative. Bridgewater Associates is currently the world’s largest hedge fund.
In short, there is some serious momentum behind the push to formally incorporate banks both large and small into the world of bitcoin, and many prominent figures of the hectic world of global finance are jumping to see how they can join the wave. In the interview with CNBC, NYDIG’s president Yan Zhao claimed that there is ample hard evidence to support the general feelings of good fortune that are flooding the crypto space.
Specifically, she said that, “This is not just the banks thinking that their clients want bitcoin, they’re saying `We need to do this, because we see the data.’ They’re seeing deposits going to the Coinbases and Galaxies and Krakens of the world.”
With leadership like this, it’s easy to see how the world of bitcoin in banks could be dramatically changed in a few months’ time.
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.