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The second oldest bank in the US, State Street, announced on Thursday that it will partner with Pure Digital to create a "unique wholesale digital currency trading platform" aimed at institutions.
Specifically, State Street's Currenex will provide the underlying trading technology for Pure Digital's "fully automated, high throughput OTC market for digital assets and cryptocurrencies with physical delivery and bank custody."
Currenex previously provided market-leading technology to the FX community.
Pure Digital and State Street also said they "intend to further explore the digital currency trading space," in a press release on Thursday.
The platform will go live in mid-2021, according to Pure Digital.
"We are excited to partner with Currenex, an industry leader in FX, on this initiative; as we work to transpose FX infrastructure to the crypto space via a bank-led consortium." Lauren Kiley, CEO of Pure Digital, said in a statement announcing the partnership on Thursday.
Lauren Kiley also told CoinDesk that "State Street is one of the many banks that will be using this platform" to trade crypto.
The bank boasted $3.15 trillion in assets under management as of the third quarter of 2020.
State Street's decision to partner with Pure Digital comes amid a boom for the crypto market.
Total cryptocurrency market value pushed past $2 trillion for the first time this week and the crypto exchange Coinbase posted an 840% jump in revenue in its first-quarter report on Tuesday. The company plans to list on the Nasdaq on April 14.
State Street isn't the only bank entering the crypto space either.
Goldman Sachs has said it will begin offering bitcoin and other digital assets to its private wealth clients as soon as the second quarter of this year. The bank restarted its cryptocurrency trading desk in the second week of March as well.
Goldman's CEO David Solomon even said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday said that his bank would "help clients facilitate custody positions in digital assets."
Solomon added that for now, "there are significant regulatory restrictions around us and us acting as a principle around cryptocurrencies like bitcoin," but said he expects "a big evolution" in US crypto regulations in the coming years.
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