Mark Weaden
Bank of America changes crypto policy and allows trading of Bitcoin futures for select clients
Leading American Bank, BoA has confirmed trading of bitcoin futures for select clients. Bank of America ceased all trading of cryptocurrencies back in 2018, but the policy has since changed.
Alongside many other traditional banking institutions, the bank remains cautious as it expands into the crypto sector. According to Coinddesk’s report and their sources, due to a large amount of margin required to trade the futures, it is now allowing some clients to access the crypto market, they also report that some clients have set up to trade bitcoin futures, and there may be several already live.
Following several Bitcoin surges, many investment banks are opening their doors to clients investing in crypto products. Back in March, Morgan Stanley emerged as the first US financial institution to offer wealthy clients who are not opposed to risk, access to bitcoin funds.
Wells Fargo reported in May that they would open up a cryptocurrency fund to their wealthy clients.
Goldman Sachs is even set to revive their cryptocurrency trading desk after three years of inactivity. The investment giant began purchasing and selling bitcoin futures in block trades with the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group and partnering up with Cumberland DRW for trading. According to Coin desk’s sources, Bank of America will also be using CME futures,
Bank of America has yet to confirm.
CME remains the biggest bitcoin trading platform on an incredibly fast-moving market. The total open interest in the bitcoin futures market is sitting at $11.3 billion, down 59% from its April 13 peak of $27.3 billion, according to Arcane Research.
With Bank of American pulling a U-turn on their policies, other banks will follow, furthering the normalization of crypto-bank relations. While most crypto opportunities in these financial institutions are currently only available to high-profile clients, the future could see expansion to more of their banking clients.
Since the Coindesk report was published, bitcoin has seen a spike pushing its value from 31,000 USD to 32,000 USD.
