An executive from The Australia and New Zealand Banking Group commented on the growing crypto industry at the “State of Play” forum held by Blockchain Australia noting that there will be a “major protocol shift for financial market infrastructure”.
The comments from ANZ bank executive Nigel Dobson demonstrate the growing sentiment that crypto can no longer be ignored.
“There’s this sort of weight of money that you just simply at some point can’t ignore right? And you know, in the DeFi world that we’ve been watching for a while or even in just the currency space, it’s just the weight of money and the quality of money that’s moving into these venues that it makes us think, well, what is happening here?” Dobson noted.
He added:
“When you look under the hood on that, we’ve concluded that this is a major protocol shift for financial market infrastructure…We’re seeing the same kind of shift occurring here. We’re shifting to more decentralized, arguably more trusted, more secure, faster, cheaper, better — yet to be proven —but if that’s the thesis that these protocols can generate better outcomes and new business models, then they can’t be ignored,”
Dobson also commented on Australian banking authorities looking into The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) crypto trading platform after they announced their plan to offer Bitcoin services.
“I think the move that the CBA made yesterday was bold and it is yet to be seen whether those customers will embrace that. But certainly all of what we’ve been talking about today, particularly in this section of the commentary, is that that the ship has sailed. And so what it is that we need to do is to navigate our path towards utilizing these networks,” he said.
Australia’s largest bank revealed on Wednesday that it had partnered with crypto exchange Gemini, and blockchain analysis company Chainanalysis, in a move that will allow its customers to buy and sell cryptocurrency through its app after a pilot and subsequent launch expected to take place in 2022.
Commonwealth Bank’s head of Blockchain Sophie Gilder, released a statement addressing the regulatory clarity for crypto assets:
“We would really welcome regulatory clarity for crypto assets. We think it would improve the market, enhance trust, and it would raise the bar in terms of customer protection.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
