Following a partnership with Chainalysis, an American blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, and crypto exchange Gemini in the USA, Commonwealth Bank (CBA), became Australia’s first mainstream bank to offer cryptocurrency services.

CBA now has the freedom to create a cryptocurrency exchange and custody service for clients that allows them to purchase, sell and keep up to ten crypto assets through their CommBank app.

With the intent of adding more features by 2022, the bank plans to release the new offerings within a matter of weeks.

CBA’s CEO Matt Comyn said that the company was motivated by the demand from customers for this service. The bank conducted research and found that most of their customers already made transactions using crypto assets on other platforms.

We believe we can play an important role in crypto to address what’s clearly a growing customer need and provide capability, security and confidence in a crypto trading platform […] CBA will leverage Gemini’s crypto exchange and custody service and integrate it into the CommBank app through APIs.

Only a handful of Australian financial institutions have yet to embrace the concept of offering crypto services. A September Reuters report said that two major Australian lenders defended the decision to not have business relations with cryptocurrency providers. A crypto trader from Australia claimed that he was rejected by more than 90 banks.

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