• The study from CoinGecko found that 74% of the world’s largest 50 banks by assets under management in 2023 support crypto trading through connections to regulated crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinbase.
• None of the banks currently offer retail crypto trading or on-ramping from their respective native platforms.
• 13 of the 50 biggest global banks are based in China, a country with an infamously anti-crypto stance.
CoinGecko Study
A new study conducted by digital asset data aggregator CoinGecko examined how crypto-friendly the world’s largest 50 banks are based on two criteria: whether they offer crypto trading or on-ramping services within the bank’s native platforms, and whether they offer the ability to connect a bank account to a major crypto exchange, such as Coinbase, Binance or OKX.
Majority Support Crypto Trading
The report revealed that 37 out of 50 (74%) of the biggest global banks by assets under management in 2023 support crypto trading through connecting to regulated crypto exchanges like Binance and Coinbase – allowing for seamless transfer of funds from bank accounts. However, none currently support retail crypto trading or on-ramping from their respective native platforms.
China’s Anti-Crypto Stance
The 13 banks on the list that do not allow account connections to exchanges are located in China, according to the report. All 13 banks are based in China, a country with an infamously anti-crypto stance; In 2013 People’s Bank of China banned financial institutions from making transactions in virtual currencies, and outlawed all forms of crypto transactions and mining in 2021.
Notable Banks Allow Connections
Amongst notable US-based banks JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America allow account connections to major cryptocurrency exchanges. UK-based HSBC as well as Japan-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group also join this list supporting this feature for customers who want access to cryptocurrencies via their banking platform.
Conclusion
At present there is still a huge gap between traditional banking systems and cryptocurrency but many large financial corporate have started bridging this divide by allowing customers easy access into major cryptocurrencies using their existing bank accounts. It remains unclear how far these banks will go towards integrating cryptocurrency into their systems but it is clear that many large corporations are taking steps towards embracing this technology into mainstream finance use cases.
