Brad Garlinghouse is the CEO of Ripple Inc. and at the Singapore FinTech Festival, he made some very interesting statements about the relationship between banks and crypto services.
In particular, he referred to cryptocurrency-based services that could be available on the market already in 2019.
Garlinghouse made explicit reference to the possibility that some traditional banks may start to store cryptocurrency directly for their customers, as they do for fiat money.
Although this prediction may seem bold, he said:
“I think one of the things that will surprise us a year from now is that banks will be custodying digital assets directly. And I think right now, we think about that and think there’s no way that’s going to happen – they’re too conservative. And I think what you’re seeing is two things happening. One is, banks are seeing that a lot of money is being made by digital asset exchanges globally, and banks are profit motivated. The second is regulatory clarity and regulatory frameworks allow banks and financial institutions to lean into these markets”.
If a clear legal framework were developed to regulate the use, custody and storage of crypto-assets, according to Ripple’s CEO, traditional banks would already have an interest in entering this market.
A legal framework that may be ready next year.
Garlinghouse also added that Asian banks could be the first to offer these services:
“I also predict it will be banks in the ASEAN markets, where there is this regulatory clarity, and there is a lot of progressive, forward thinking. They will be the first to actually allow for crypto assets custody in their accounts”.
