By Samuel Indyk
Investing.com – Bank of New York Mellon (NYSE:BK) has invested an undisclosed amount in cryptocurrency start-up Fireblocks, first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The news follows the reports in February that Bank of New York Mellon was to set up a digital asset unit. The bank said the new unit plans to hold, transfer, and issue bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of clients.
“BNY Mellon is proud to be the first global bank to announce plans to provide an integrated service for digital assets,” said Roman Regelman, the bank’s CEO of Asset Servicing and head of Digital at the time.
Fireblocks investment
The bank’s strategic investment in Fireblocks is part of a larger funding round that Fireblocks announced today. The start-up raised $133mln in total from investors but BNY Mellon has not disclosed the size of its investment. To date, Fireblocks has raised $179mln, making it the most well-funded crypto infrastructure provider in the industry.
"Fintechs and banks require not only a specialized custody and settlement infrastructure to ensure customers funds are safely managed, but a platform that enables new lines of digital offerings," said Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks. “While we have no plans to become a bank, we believe our infrastructure will lend itself perfectly to power an entirely new era of financial services.”
About Fireblocks
According to their website, Fireblocks is an “all-in-one platform to store, transfer, and issue digital assets across your entire ecosystem”. The WSJ reports that BNY Mellon plans to use Fireblock’s technology to underpin the aforementioned digital asset unit that it plans to set up.
The crypto start-up announced that in February, more than $100bln of digital assets were moved through their network, more than double the level from three months earlier.
Cryptocurrency and corporate acceptance
BNY Mellon is just one of a number of companies that is preparing for a future with digital assets. Last month, Mastercard (NYSE:MA) announced they were bringing cryptocurrencies onto their network saying that cryptocurrencies were “becoming a more important part of the payments world”.
Separately, companies from Tesla Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) to MicroStrategy Incorporated (NASDAQ:MSTR) announced large-scale purchases of Bitcoin, the former being the catalyst for the run up in prices this year which saw the world’s largest cryptocurrency break above $60,000 for the first time over the weekend.
Only today, Hong Kong listed app developer Meitu Inc (HK:1357) announced it had purchased both bitcoin and Ethereum, taking their total net purchase to approximately $90mln worth of the two cryptocurrencies.