BNY Mellon, America’s oldest bank, launches crypto services

The bank will store private keys and provide bookkeeping services equivalent to those offered to fund managers in traditional assets.

BNY Mellon launched a digital custody platform to safeguard select clients’ Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC) holdings on Oct. 11, making America’s oldest bank the first large bank in the country to offer the custody of digital assets and traditional investments on the same platform. 

According to a statement, the bank will store private keys to access the funds and provide the same bookkeeping services offered to fund managers in other assets, such as stocks and bonds.

“With Digital Asset Custody, we continue our journey of trust and innovation into the evolving digital assets space, while embracing leading technology and collaborating with fintechs,” said Roman Regelman, CEO of securities services and digital at BNY Mellon.

BNY Mellon is 238 years old, possesses over $43 trillion in assets under custody or administration worldwide and, in 2021, formed an enterprise Digital Assets Unit to develop digital assets solutions and a platform to bridge digital and traditional asset custody. The bank was granted approval for crypto custody earlier this fall from the New York financial’s authority.

Related: BNY Mellon plans to launch digital asset custody platform later this year

A recent survey from the bank revealed that 91% of institutional investors are interested in investing in tokenized products, and 41% of them hold cryptocurrency in their portfolios.

In March, the bank was selected by Circle as the custodian of its USD Coin (USDC) reserves. BNY previously announced its partnership with blockchain-data platform Chainalysis to help traditional financial institutions track and analyze cryptocurrency products, allowing large firms to manage legal risks related to cryptocurrencies.