Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), the Spanish banking major, in its Swiss division, announced that it was expanding its current crypto offering. The bank announced that it was adding Ethereum to its portfolio of investments. The bank’s Swiss division had already, in June, announced that it was providing for its customers the facility to trade in Bitcoins.
Ethereum Addition
BBVA Switzerland’s foray into Ethereum makes it the first among the traditional banks to add ETH to its range of services. The bank said that its decision to add ETH was driven by the fact that, together with Bitcoin, this generated the most interest from investors. The bank offering these services is also accompanied by total compliance with regulations.
Future Plans
The CEO of BBVA Switzerland, elaborating on the bank’s future plans, said that the bank would continue to grow its crypto portfolio. Expanded crypto services will enable customers to make increased investments in digital assets. Expansion to newer countries and the addition of newer customers will depend on market conditions in terms of demand, maturity, and regulations.
BBVA Switzerland’s strategy to first launch Bitcoins helped it to test its operations, its security systems and also the market size for the service offering. It enabled the bank to assess demand among customers to invest in digital assets despite the known volatility and risk of digital assets.
The bank’s customers, holding a New Gen account, on the BBVA app, can now view their BTC and ETH holdings along with their traditional investments and assets. The New Gen account requires an initial deposit of $10,000 and allows access to a crypto wallet and a range of companies and funds.
