PNC Bank has partnered with Coinbase to enable its customers to trade cryptocurrencies as digital asset adoption by regulated US lenders rises.
After a period of caution, US banks are embracing crypto due to President Donald Trump’s support for digital assets. Trump appointed friendly officials to oversee the industry, led legislation in favour of the sector, and backed several crypto businesses alongside his sons.
During Joe Biden’s administration, crypto executives condemned banks’ unwillingness to work with them. In 2023, Signature Bank and Silvergate were closed, with no other lenders serving the crypto industry to fill in for them until now.
Expanding beyond TradFi
Last week, Washington passed a bill with the aim of supporting traditional investors and lenders to get into stablecoins. The development was celebrated by executives as the price of Bitcoin hit a record high of USD 123,000, reflecting PNC’s mission. The bank, with USD 400 billion in deposits, is a regional US bank seeking to expand and challenge rivals such as JPMorgan Chase. JPMorgan Chase is testing lending against its clients’ crypto holdings, and Standard Chartered began allowing institutional clients to trade spot Bitcoin and Ethereum.
PNC Bank mentioned that the partnership with Coinbase will enable it to meet the growing demand for secure and convenient access to digital assets. The bank will also offer banking services to the crypto exchange as part of the deal. PNC is yet to disclose the timeline for its crypto launch.
Coinbase is a popular crypto exchange in the US, pushing to change attitudes towards digital assets in the traditional finance community by spending millions of USD on lobbying in Washington. The company aims to expand into banking services as the lines between the two industries start to blur more and more, seeking to contribute more to digital finance. Its crypto-as-a-service platform gives partners custody and trading tools that would otherwise be expensive to build from zero.
