CryptoAssets, Banks and Institutionalisation

Who is doing what in the crypto space?

Much is being written about the increasing institutionalisation of the crypto space.

This page is just my aide memoir for who is doing what.

(After all, some banks do have a habit of changing their public stance).

This page redesigned as of June 2021.

I'm not American, so date format is dd/mm/yy

Sell Side Participants

BBVA Switzerland

Opens Bitcoin Trading For The First Time (18/06/21)

https://decrypt.co/73940/bbva-switzerland-opens-bitcoin-trading-for-the-first-time

Bank of America 

Bank of America, Coinbase Ventures Invested in Paxos’ $300M Funding Round (29/07/21)

Paxos started providing infrastructure for PayPal’s crypto service last year

https://www.coindesk.com/bank-of-america-coinbase-ventures-invested-in-paxos-300m-series-d

Bank of America has begun clearing bitcoin futures (16/07/21)

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/111687/bank-of-america-has-begun-clearing-bitcoin-futures

Creates Team Dedicated to Researching Crypto (08/07/21)

Cryptocurrencies and digital assets are “one of the fastest-growing emerging technology ecosystems,” Candace Browning, Bank of America’s head of global research, wrote 

https://www.coindesk.com/bank-of-america-creates-team-dedicated-to-researching-crypto

Credit Suisse

(as per BoA) Paxos funding (29/07/21)

Danske Bank: it is at present not possible to trade cryptocurrencies or financial instruments based on cryptocurrencies on Danske Bank's trading platforms, and we generally advise against investing in such assets. (18/06/21)

https://danskebank.com/news-and-insights/news-archive/news/2021/18062021

Goldman Sachs (GS): Wall Street giant is getting ready to move beyond Bitcoin. (14/06/21)

https://decrypt.co/73579/goldman-sachs-ethereum-options-futures

Goldman Sachs is not completely shunning crypto. According to the firm, it does indeed have clients who are interested in participating in these markets. 

https://decrypt.co/73852/goldman-sachs-bitcoin-not-asset-class-dogecoin-speculation

JP Morgan (JPM):
Wells Fargo, JPMorgan partner with NYDIG to launch bitcoin funds (19/08/21)

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/115087/wells-fargo-jpmorgan-partner-with-nydig-to-launch-bitcoin-funds

JPMorgan is on a hiring spree for its blockchain unit Onyx (19/07/21)

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/111833/jpmorgan-is-on-a-blockchain-hiring-spree

https://www.jpmorgan.com/onyx/offerings.htm#section2

Morgan Stanley (MS) 

Morgan Stanley co-leads $48 million investment in blockchain platform Securitize. (21/06/21)

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/morgan-stanley-blockchain-platform-securitize-funding-series-b-round-million-2021-6

Northern Trust

See Zodia (Infrastructure) 

Standard Chartered

See Zodia (Infrastructure) 

State Street

State Street to launch crypto services for private funds clients (30/07/21)

https://cointelegraph.com/news/state-street-to-launch-crypto-services-for-private-funds-clients

Societe Generale

(as per BoA) Paxos funding (29/07/21)

UBS

UBS Mulls Offering Prime Brokerage Services for Crypto ETPs to European Hedge Funds (29/07/21)

https://www.coindesk.com/ubs-mulls-offering-prime-brokerage-services-for-crypto-etps-to-european-hedge-funds-sources

Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo, JPMorgan partner with NYDIG to launch bitcoin funds (19/08/21)

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/115087/wells-fargo-jpmorgan-partner-with-nydig-to-launch-bitcoin-funds

Wells Fargo said on Wednesday it would introduce professionally managed funds for its more wealthy clients. (19/05/21)

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57147386

Sell Side Hiring

JPMorgan Chase, BNY Mellon, Deutsche Bank, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Capital One, UBS, Bank of America, Credit Suisse, and Barclays are the major financial institutions hiring the most crypto talent for a mix of roles (09/11/21)

https://news.yahoo.com/big-banks-getting-in-the-game-of-hiring-crypto-talent-161421596.html?

Buy Side Participants

European Investment Fund puts $30M in Fabric Ventures’ new $130M digital assets fund (29/07/21)

Fabric Ventures, a Luxembourg-based VC billed as backing the “open economy,” has closed $130 million for its 2021 fund, $30 million of which is coming from the European Investment Fund (EIF).

https://techcrunch-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/techcrunch.com/2021/07/29/european-investment-fund-puts-30m-in-fabric-ventures-new-120m-digital-assets-fund/amp/

German Institutions

Beginning on Aug. 2, 2021, German institutional funds will be able to hold up to 20% of their assets in cryptocurrencies (31/07/21)

https://cointelegraph.com/news/german-law-allowing-institutional-funds-to-hold-crypto-comes-into-effect-aug-2

Fidelity Digital Assets 

Crypto derivatives platform Paradigm nabs $400 million valuation in funding round.

In total, 25 investors participated in the Series A, including…a number of Wall Street firms:

Fidelity Digital Assets, IMC, and Optiver. (9th Dec 2021)
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/126894/crypto-derivatives-paradigm-valuation-funding-round

Plans to increase its headcount by around 70% in anticipation of growing institutional demand for crypto services. (12/07/21)

https://www.coindesk.com/fidelity-digital-assets-to-increase-headcount-by-70-report

Grayscale's Digital Large Cap Fund Is Now an SEC-Reporting Company.

it will allow wealthy investors who buy shares in the fund to liquidate those shares on the retail market after a period of six months rather than twelve. (12/07/21)
https://decrypt.co/75719/grayscale-large-cap-fund-sec-etf

Infrastructure

TP ICAP 

To Launch Cryptoasset Trading Platform In Collaboration With Fidelity Digital Assets, Zodia Custody And Flow Traders. (29/06/21)

https://tpicap.com/tpicap/media/press-releases/2021/tp-icap-launch-cryptoasset-trading-platform-collaboration-fidelity

LMAX

J.C. Flowers to Buy 30% of LMAX for $300M (16/07/21)

London-based LMAX operates five exchanges globally. In 2018, it started LMAX Digital, an exchange for spot crypto that has more than 500 institutional clients. Cryptocurrency accounted for 11% of LMAX Group volumes in the firm’s first half results.
https://www.coindesk.com/j-c-flowers-to-buy-30-of-lmax-for-300m-report

Zodia

Standard Chartered-backed crypto custodian Zodia added to UK FCA's crypto register (15/07/21)

In December, SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's venture arm, announced that it was partnering with Northern Trust to launch a new crypto custodian.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/111600/standard-chartered-backed-crypto-custodian-zodia-added-to-uk-fcas-crypto-register

NYDIG (12/07/21)
650 U.S. banks will soon be able to offer bitcoin purchases to an estimated 24 million total customers. As part of the deal between enterprise payments giant NCR and digital-asset management firm NYDIG.
Nydig was founded in 2017, as New York Digital Investment Group, a way for its sister company, $11 billion Stone Ridge Asset Management, to store its bitcoin and other cryptocurrency.

Nydig and its other banking partners, FIS, Fiserve, Q2 Holdings and Alkami Technology today took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2021/06/30/6-billion-ncr-opens-bitcoin-purchases-to-650-banks-and-credit-unions

Circle: USDC

Circle’s most promising product has been its stablecoin — USD Coin, or USDC for short. 
There are currently $25 billion USDC in circulation and the company believes there will $190 billion USDC in circulation by the end of 2023.
https://techcrunch.com/2021/07/08/cryptocurrency-company-circle-to-go-public-in-spac-deal/

https://www.circle.com/en/

https://bullish.com/
Bullish, which has yet to launch its flagship crypto exchange, spun out of Block.one in May with an investment of $300 million from Peter Thiel's Thiel Capital, Founders Fund and others. Block.one capitalized the new company with $100 million, plus 164,000 bitcoin and 20 million EOS, another cryptocurrency. (12/07/21)
https://pitchbook.com/newsletter/thiel-backed-bullish-to-go-public-at-9b-valuation

Mastercard.

We have to be in the crypto space, Mastercard CEO says (30/07/21)

https://cointelegraph.com/news/we-have-to-be-in-the-crypto-space-mastercard-ceo-says

Deutsche Börse Group has acquired a majority stake in Crypto Finance AG (29/06/21)

https://www.cryptofinance.ch/en/deutsche-boerse-group-acquires-majority-in-crypto-finance/

Coinbase Germany GmbH – has today been granted a licence for crypto trading and custody by the financial regulator. (28/06/21)

https://www.cityam.com/coinbase-gets-green-light-from-german-regulators/

Binance

Vertex Ventures, a subsidiary of Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek, has invested in Binance Singapore. After rejecting Sequoia Capital’s investment, CZ made it clear that Binance does not need external funds, and he is only interested in working with venture capital companies that can help exchanges cooperate with regulators and obtain operating licenses. (23/08/21)
https://twitter.com/WuBlockchain/status/1429651290628366349?s=20

Binance Singapore hires former SGX chief regulatory officer as CEO (23/08/21)
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/115302/binance-singapore-ceo-sgx-regulatory-officer

Today we’re announcing that we plan to wind down our derivatives products offerings across the European region, commencing with the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy. (30/07/21)
https://www.binance.com/en/support/announcement/f72d0fff2bd24b488213fa30284dd4cd

Malaysia for illegal operation (30/07/21)

https://www.sc.com.my/resources/media/media-release/sc-takes-enforcement-actions-on-binance-for-illegally-operating-in-malaysia

India for AML violations (30/07/21) 

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-30/india-said-to-examine-binance-in-betting-app-laundering-probe

Hong Kong, Lithuania Next to Issue Binance Warnings (16/07/21)

https://www.coindesk.com/hong-kong-next-to-issue-binance-warning

Consumer warning on Binance Markets Limited and the Binance Group. (26/06/21)

Binance Markets Limited is not permitted to undertake any regulated activity in the UK. This firm is part of a wider Group (Binance Group).
https://www.fca.org.uk/news/news-stories/consumer-warning-binance-markets-limited-and-binance-group

PayPal
The company has not yet allowed users to move crypto holdings off-platform

https://www.coindesk.com/paypal-to-bring-crypto-service-to-uk-customers

Stablecoins

In September, the Fed is expected to issue a major report on stablecoins that is likely to have repercussions across the industry. (24/08/21)

https://decrypt.co/79257/paxos-stablecoin-pax-dollar

Regulation

UK

BoE begins CCP supervisory stress test (21/10/21)
https://www.securitiesfinancetimes.com/securitieslendingnews/regulationarticle.php?article_id=225104

US

CFTC Commissioner clarifies its role in digital assets regulation (24/08/21)

https://www.ledgerinsights.com/cftc-commissioner-clarifies-role-in-digital-assets-regulation/