Australia’s CBA offers crypto trading, breaks ranks with industry

Australia’s CBA offers crypto trading, breaks ranks with industry

SYDNEY - Commonwealth Bank of Australia will become the country's first main-street bank to offer a platform for retail customers to trade cryptocurrencies, breaking industry ranks as it looks to match offerings from rival fintech firms. Australia's biggest lender said it will partner with New York-based exchange Gemini Trust Company LLC to offer a "crypto exchange and custody service" through a new feature in its mobile banking app that is used by about 6.4 million customers. "We believe we can play an important role in crypto to address what's clearly a growing customer need," Commonwealth Bank Chief Executive Matt Comyn said in a statement. Cryptocurrency executives and supporters said the move would help validate the $2.6 trillion crypto trading industry. "Nothing that I know, particularly from a bank of this size, enables retail clients to directly buy crypto through their platform, to the best of my knowledge. So it's really exciting," said Caroline Bowler, chief executive of BTC Markets, one of the largest crypto exchanges in Australia. Soaring popularity of cryptocurrencies has posed a problem for mainstream banks as they try to balance clients' interest in digital coins with regulatory concerns about their risks. Some large banks in the U.S.