As more institutions and funds start taking bitcoin more serious by purchasing and holding the asset there is also running in parallel the same entities trying to apply use for the asset.
Banks may not appreciate the thought of being left out when users exchange bitcoin for goods and services. Instead of forfeiting the transaction some banks have welcomed with open arms cryptocurrency and allows its use with the bank.
Colombia is one step closer to this as one of the country's commercial bank is accepting cryptocurrencies for use in deposits and withdraws. It will start as a pilot program and see how it pans out but bank hopes to integrate crypto into its uses in all types of assets. Can you imagine the day you can use crypto to pay for a house or car and have the bank back up the transaction or provide insurance on the transaction?
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To help readers realize how many banks are adopting the use of crypto and specifically bitcoin I have found a chart that is very informative regarding which banks in which country is currently accepting/using crypto. Enjoy!
(The Following Chart Courtesy of www.banks.com)
Banks That Accept Bitcoin
| Name | Country | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Chime Bank | United States | Founded in 2013 by entrepreneurs Chris Britt and Ryan King, Chime Bank is headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company offers no monthly fees, no overdraft fees, no minimum balance fees, and over 38,000+ ATM locations including CVS, Walgreens, and 7-Eleven stores. With Chime Bank, you receive your direct deposit payments as soon as they are processed. The mobile app is easy to use, so finding an ATM is painless and they also have a feature for mailing out checks on your behalf right from the interface itself. The official statement from Chime is that bitcoin purchases are not allowed with their VISA debit card, however, you can utilize a platform such as Paxful and use their escrow system to move money to pay friends directly with their username, phone number or email. |
| Wirex | United Kingdom | Founded in 2014, Wirex is a London based company that allows customers to open a crypto-friendly business account. The Wirex app can be accessed on both iOS and Android devices. Wirex offers the first-ever FCA-licenced, crypto-friendly business account that is secured with multi-signature cold-storage. Wirex makes it easy to own both cryptocurrency and fiat dollars under one smart and simplified account. Within the Wirex app, you can seamlessly buy, store and exchange digital and traditional currencies anytime. Customers can fund their accounts using a debit or credit card, bank transfer or crypto. Wirex can also be linked to a third-party service such as Curve, Revolut, or Paypal. Customers can exchange between currencies at any time. |
| Ally | United States | Ally bank is one of the most Bitcoin-friendly banks. Ally is an online only bank, meaning it has no brick and mortar locations. But they have 24/7 support as well as an online chat feature that has very short wait times (usually 2-5mins). You can easily link your bank account to Coinbase and buy desired coins with your debit card. You can also try buying crypto with your credit cards, as Ally hasn’t announced they are against it, but then you will end up paying the fees. This bank has really attractive plans to start your banking with them and there are positive reviews from their clients who also purchased coins and had no issues. |
| Fidor Bank | Germany | Fidor has noted that it will team up with Kraken to operate a fully functioning altcoin bank. |
| Change | Estonia | Change, a crowd-funded blockchain project (ICO), is seeking to make banking functions available to altcoin users. The company is doing this by offering a wallet for the storage of altcoins, providing an altcoin spending card, and offering a marketplace that will aggregate the best investment and insurance opportunities and onboarding them on a single platform. |
| Worldcore | Czech Republic | Worldcore provides multi-currency accounts that can be accessed via debit and virtual cards. The leading bank in the Czech Republic, its PayAnyCard can be loaded with altcoins to make digital currency spending a simple matter. |
| Bankera | United Kingdom | The operational arm of SpectroCoin, Bankera seeks to be a fully-functional bank that offers payment accounts, interbank foreign exchange rates, debit cards, lending—allowing altcoins as collateral—and payment processing. |
| USAA | United States | USAA allows Coinbase users to check their bitcoin balances from their apps and have invested in the exchange. This marks the first major bank to invest in an exchange. |
| Goldman Sachs | United States | Goldman Sachs launched an altcoin trading desk and offers altcoin products since 2018. |
| Revolut | United Kingdom | You can receive cryptocurrency interests sent by another Revolut user. However, you will not be able to receive cryptocurrencies sent from outside of the Revolut platform, eg. external wallets. This is something we are working to improve upon, and we hope will be available in the future. This is a closed offering whereby you can buy, sell, exchange, and transfer within the Revolut platform. |
| National Bank of Canada | Canada | See TDB. |
| Simple Bank | United States | Simple Bank collaborates with most bitcoin exchanges and permits direct buy-sell transaction for bitcoin. |
None of what I write is financial advice. It is for entertainment purposes only. Thanks for reading!
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