A new deal with NCR and NYDIG has opened up a way for banks across the U.S. to offer Bitcoin buying options to their customers. Forbes reported that the deal would enable community banks including North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank and credit unions including Bay Federal Credit Union in California would be able to offer their customers crypto trading. The trading would be carried out on mobile applications that would be built by the payments provider.

The deal will make it so that banks can offer bitcoin trading options without having to worry about regulations surrounding bitcoin ownership. In short, the coins would be able to let their customers trade bitcoin without having to buy any coins themselves.

The banks would not hold any coins for their customers. Instead, the coins will be held on the apps built by the payments provider.

Customers have long wanted to have access to crypto options. It was due to pressure from customers that megabank Goldman Sachs had started to offer bitcoin and ether trading options.

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A survey from 2020 by Cornerstone Advisors showed that 60% of cryptocurrency users would want to use their banks to invest in crypto. But at the time, only 2% of banks were willing to provide this option.

But with the growing popularity of bitcoin has come mounting pressure from bank customers. The customers only have one demand; they want to be able to trade crypto through their bank.

Banks currently cannot buy crypto assets. This is due to red tape and regulatory issues. But banks are increasingly finding new ways to offer their customers what they want.

With deals like the ones with NCR and NYDIG, banks can now give their customers access to crypto options. This eliminates the need for the banks to buy or own or even hold any crypto.

NYDIG is a subsidiary of Stone Ridge. Stone Ridge is an alternative asset manager with $4 billion in digital assets in its custody as of February 2021.

The deal will see the parties making money from charging trading fees to the customers. Stone Ridge is a custodian of at least 30,000 bitcoins. Which are valued at $1 billion.

Assets under the firm’s management have now grown to over $6 billion. This being from the infrastructure partnerships with banks to offer them bitcoin services.

NYDIG’s infrastructure reportedly allows them to offer bitcoin services to about 70% of all U.S. banks.

There are 24 million customers across the 650 banks this deal applies to. Giving 24 million people access to the crypto market only means more adoption.

People trust banks. That is a fact. They wouldn’t put their money in it if they didn’t think the banks would keep it safe. So when a bank starts offering crypto options, customers will take this as a sign that cryptos are actually trusted assets.

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Adoption is still a tricky thing when it comes to mainstream financial systems. Regulatory bodies are still trying to figure out how to properly regulate digital currencies. Hence, there are still a lot of blocks when it comes to access to crypto.

Being able to conveniently trade in crypto with your bank through an app on your phone will be a game-changer.

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