Will the U.S. second oldest bank State Street start trading crypto?

According to a press release, one of the most important banks in the U.S. State Street will partner with start-up Puremarkets. The cooperation will enable State Street’s Currenex, a “high performance” trading technology provider, to work with the start-up on a crypto trading platform.

In parallel, the partners might explore “the digital currency trading space”. With over $3.15 trillion in assets under management and $38 assets under custody, State Street is one of the largest banks revealing participation in the crypto industry.

The trading platform called Pure Digital will be, according to the press release, automated with a “high throughput OTC market”. Also, it will support trading with cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, with digital assets, such as USDT.

Pure Digital users will be able to leverage bilateral credit to gain “efficient capital utilization and control”. In that way, the partners will contribute to strengthen the crypto market for “price discovery” and lower the “risk” when trading with the asset class.

Crypto trading platform under evaluation

The platform is expected to be launch around Q2, 2021. In addition to the above, the platform will have a “smart custody routing mechanism”. This will allow users to trade under their “prefer asset custody solution”.

To reduce costs for all traders, Pure Digital will integrate FX-industry standard API, according to the release. Users looking to acquire long positions will have the option of trading with their “existing Prime Bank/Custodial relationships and infrastructure”. Campbell Adams, Founder of Pure Digital said:

Pure Digital is pleased to explore the digital asset space with State Street as we share the same vision for the future of the digital currency market.

On the other hand, Pure Digital CEO Lauren Kiley expressed excitement about the partnership and for the opportunity to work with Currenex. Kiley made emphasis on their objective, “transpose” FX infrastructure over to the crypto sector along with a consortium led by the banking institution.

Global Head of Execution Services for GlobalLink, State Street Global Markets David Newns added:

Currenex is thrilled to leverage our experience and expertise in the FX and digital asset trading marketplace to provide Pure Digital with robust technology and infrastructure for this exciting digital currency trading initiative.

However, per a Coindesk’ report, a State Street spokesperson said the bank is “evaluating trading on the platform”. The banking institution is yet to take on a commitment to actually carry out operations in cryptocurrencies.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $57.709 with gains of 3.4% in the daily chart.