Americans To Be Able To Buy And Sell Bitcoin Using Their Bank Accounts

Americans will be able to trade Bitcoin through their existing bank accounts, according to the New York Digital Investment Group, NYDIG.

After a long time of perceiving crypto as unnecessary, and evil, American banks are now asking for Bitcoin. With the astronomical growth of crypto exchanges like Coinbase, and Binance, and seeing how much money their customers are channeling to these exchanges, it is possible that banks now want a piece of the pie.

The president of NYDIG, Yan Zhao, revealed that the bitcoin firm has partnered with hundreds of banks to launch products that make it possible for customers to buy, sell, and hold Bitcoin. Not just that, there will be other services, including the payment of debit card rewards in Bitcoin, and a special kind of bank account that pays interest in Bitcoin.

How It Would Work

NDYIG has partnered with payment service providers, Fidelity National Information. FNI is currently a financial services vendor with over 300 million checking accounts, which provides banks in the US with access to financial services. It has developed an app, the Digital One™ Mobile which will provide consumers with a user-friendly interface, connecting them to BTC trading services. 

• NYDIG will handle the trade execution and be in the custody of the cryptocurrency. 
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• Fees are, however, left to the banks, which will determine exactly how much to charge customers and will most likely retain most of the fee revenue. 

This move is another step towards taking Bitcoin mainstream. The digital coin, which was previously restricted to apps by new fintech companies, is now being integrated into conventional banking services.

According to the head of banking solutions at NYDIG, Patrick Sells, hundreds of banks are on board, from some of the biggest in the country to the much smaller ones with as little as seven branches.

He said, "What we’re doing is making it simple for everyday Americans and corporations to be able to buy bitcoin through their existing bank relationships. If I’m using my mobile application to do all of my banking, now I have the ability to buy, sell and hold bitcoin.”

In a survey commissioned by the NYIDG, more people said they would own Bitcoin if they could buy it through their normal bank accounts. The entire process of signing up with a different account, and funding said account, before purchasing Bitcoin is too long for a lot of potential BTC owners.