Cryptocurrency Investors Own 15% of Metropolitan Banks’ Deposits
Metropolitan Bank, a commercial bank based in New York, has announced that cryptocurrency investors and clients own over 15 percent of the bank’s deposits and that the bank is ready to give its support for digital asset traders.
Metropolitan Bank CTO Nick Rosenberg noted in an interview with Leigh Cuen of Coindesk that:
“We’re certainly very interested in growing this vertical. We’ve learned that it’s a serious industry. There are some very smart people involved. There are some very interesting ideas coming out that could really change the way people do business.”
Earlier, in a region such as the US, Japan, and South Korea, which have become major cryptocurrency markets, banks have terminated digital asset investors and businesses supporting digital assets as a result of their incorrect assessment of the industry and the absolute size of the capital available in the international cryptocurrency market.
Banks in South Korea and Japan also had the similar assumption to that of Rosenberg and have been dismissing the cryptocurrency industry until quite recently.
However, coming to know the sharp growth rate of digital asset exchanges and the general market, and the emergence of the world’s biggest financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, it has become much harder for commercial banks to terminate the cryptocurrency market and forget it.
For instance in South Korea, Kookmin Bank, the country’s biggest bank, totally stopped cryptocurrency businesses and ceased from offering virtual bank accounts to cryptocurrency exchanges. The shocking exit of Kookmin Bank prompted investors to be concerned about the short-term future of the market and think about what will happen to the cryptocurrency exchanges.
Shortly after Kookmin Bank announced its end of support for digital asset businesses, Shihan Bank, the second largest commercial bank in South Korea, gave its support to digital asset exchange, offering virtual bank accounts and other systems that businesses might require to operate effectively.
