[November 3, 2021] Commonwealth Bank will become Australia’s first bank to offer customers the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin.
CBA announced today that it has partnered with one of the world’s largest regulated cryptocurrency exchanges, Gemini, to allow customers to trade in digital currencies via the CommBank app.
The new feature will run as a pilot in the coming weeks, and pending a successful trial period will be available to more customers in 2022. CBA’s Commbank app is the largest banking application in the country with more than 6.5 million users.
While dipping its toe into the emerging crypto trend, by letting its customers trade digital currencies, CBA is also looking to mitigate as much risk as possible – both by carefully selecting best in class partners – Gemini, which supplies the exchange, and Chainalysis, which will provide the digital ledger (or blockchain).
The bank has teamed up with the billionaire Winklevoss twins – Tyler and Cameron, – the crypto kings behind Gemini but who are better known for accusing Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg for pinching their social media network idea.
While dipping its toe into the emerging crypto trend, by letting its customers trade digital currencies, CBA is also looking to mitigate as much risk as possible – both by carefully selecting best in class partners – Gemini, which supplies the exchange, and Chainalysis, which will provide the digital ledger (or blockchain).
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