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Garanti BBVA’s to Provide Crypto Trading Services in Hint of Things to Come

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Spanish banking giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) is deepening its foray into the crypto ecosystem.

Garanti BBVA Kripto, a crypto custody platform operated by Garanti BBVA — Turkey’s fifth largest bank, which as of December 2023 was almost 86% owned by BBVA — will soon be providing crypto trading services to the general public. Bit2Me, a crypto exchange founded in Spain in 2014, will be used as the bank’s trading execution center.

And now that the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation is in full effect across the European Union, the partnership between BBVA and the crypto exchange is a strong signal of more things are brewing on the horizon, according to Abel Peña, Bit2Me’s chief sales officer.

“I believe in 2025 we are going to see so many banks across Europe offering crypto spot trading to their users,” Peña told CoinDesk. “We are in very close contact with more than 50 financial institutions, with banks all across Europe and internationally, and they will start launching their services in the first quarter of 2025.”

BBVA held $857 billion in assets in 2023, making it the 43rd largest bank in the world at the time, and the second biggest in Spain after Banco Santander. While Garanti BBVA Kripto has already been advertising crypto trading services on its website since January 2024, the product was only offered as a pilot and wasn’t available for the general public, according to Bit2Me.

BBVA began embracing the crypto industry in Turkey because the regulatory environment allowed it to move earlier, Peña said. Since MiCA finished rolling out on Dec. 30, financial institutions such as BBVA will now be able to secure approval from domestic regulators and offer exposure to bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies to their European customers.

“As soon as they have the green light, they will start,” Peña said. “This is from the knowledge that many of them are already integrated with us,” he added, though he declined to disclose the names of the institutions.

But why is the banking sector suddenly so enthusiastic about crypto? The regulatory certainty provided by MiCA played a part, Peña said, but U.S. President-elect Donald Trump — who became a vocal crypto supporter in the middle of his campaign, and won big in November — was also a factor. Not to mention the various ideas floating around to get the U.S. government to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.

The tremendous success of the U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds, which have raked in a record $35 billion in inflows in less than a year, certainly didn’t hurt either. “We’re talking about an asset [bitcoin] that many users and companies want to gain exposure to. This is something that banks cannot deny anymore,” Peña said.

BBVA isn’t the first European bank to dip its toes into crypto. Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest multinational investment bank, is building a rollup on Ethereum using ZKsync technology and has been working on crypto custody and tokenization services with Swiss start-up Taurus since 2023, among other things. French financial services company Société Générale, for its part, has its own crypto arm, called SG-FORGE, which recently announced it will deploy its own euro stablecoin to the XRP Ledger (XRPL) network.

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AVAX Surges 10.7% as Bullish Breakout Signals Strong Momentum

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Avalanche’s AVAX token has broken out of its multi-week correction phase, demonstrating remarkable strength despite ongoing geopolitical tensions affecting cryptocurrency markets.

The broader market gauge, CoinDesk 20 Index (DLCS), has demonstrated exceptional bullish momentum, surging from 1403.33 to 1461.17 in the last 48 hours, representing a 4.12% gain, while the overall range spans 95.56 points (6.97%) from the low of 1365.61 to the high of 1461.17.

The recent price action of AVAX shows accelerated momentum with the formation of a bull flag pattern and decisive breakout above $20.40, coinciding with significant institutional developments in the ecosystem, according to CoinDesk Research’s technical analysis data.

Technical Analysis Highlights

  • AVAX demonstrated remarkable strength, surging from 18.87 to 20.89, representing a 10.7% gain.
  • Price action reveals a clear bullish trend with higher lows forming a strong support trendline around 19.50.
  • After consolidating between 19.30-19.70 on April 20, AVAX experienced a significant breakout on April 21, with volume increasing substantially as the price pushed above 20.00.
  • The most recent 48 hours show accelerated momentum with the formation of a bull flag pattern and a decisive breakout above 20.40, suggesting further upside potential.
  • Key resistance at 20.90 now becomes the level to watch, with Fibonacci extension targets pointing to 21.50 as the next significant objective.
  • In the last 100 minutes, AVAX surged from 20.61 to 21.04, representing a 2.1% gain.
  • After consolidating between 20.50-20.60 during the 13:20-13:40 timeframe, price formed a solid base before initiating a powerful upward move.
  • The decisive breakout occurred at 14:40 with extraordinary volume (146,387 units), creating a strong support level at 20.80.
  • Multiple high-volume candles followed between 14:44-14:48, pushing the price through the critical 21.00 psychological barrier with the highest volume spike (142,112 units) at 14:47.
  • This breakout completes the bullish pattern established in the previous 48 hours, with Fibonacci extension targets now suggesting 21.50 as the next significant objective.

Disclaimer: This article was generated with AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy. This article may include information from external sources, which are listed below when applicable.

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Janover Buys Another $11.5M in SOL, Gets Renamed Amid Crypto Treasury Strategy Play

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Janover (JNVR), the real estate-focused fintech company with a Solana (SOL) treasury strategy, has been renamed to DeFi Development Corp and purchased another $11.5 million worth of SOL tokens, the firm said on Tuesday.

The move brings the company’s total SOL holdings to 251,842, including staking rewards, the company said. That’s valued at around $36.5 million, with SOL currently trading around $145.

JNVR shares were down 2.5% today at $38.3, well below last week’s peak just shy of $80. However, the stock is still up over 800% since adopting the crypto treasury strategy. SOL advanced nearly 5% over the past 24 hours, with the broader crypto market climbing higher.

The purchase was part of the Boca Raton, Florida-based company’s new crypto bet to position itself as the first U.S.-listed company with a treasury strategy centered on Solana and its native token SOL.

As part of the strategy, the firm seeks to accumulate SOL and operate one or more validators to secure the blockchain. The pivot happened after a team of former executives of crypto exchange Kraken bought a majority stake in the firm earlier this month.

Read more: Janover Takes Page From Saylor Playbook, Doubling SOL Stack to $20M as Stock Soars 1700%

The purchase was made using funds from a $42 million financing round the company completed earlier this year. Based on the latest figures, each share of the company represents 0.17 SOL, up 62% from its last crypto purchase, according to the press release.

The firm will also change its ticker to DFSV on the Nasdaq exchange at a future date to reflect its new name.

Last week, the company announced a strategic partnership with Kraken with plans to delegate part of the exchange’s SOL holdings to stake to validators operated by DeFi Development Corp. The firm also teamed up with BitGo to acquire locked tokens via over-the-counter markets.

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Arch Labs Raises $13M in Funding for Bitcoin-Based Smart Contracts

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Bitcoin decentralized finance (DeFi) developer Arch Labs raised $13 million in funding toward building «ArchVM,» which the developers say will provide smart-contract functionality on the original blockchain.

The funding round, which valued the company at $200 million, was led by Pantera Capital, according to an announcement on Tuesday.

Arch’s plans to enable decentralized applications and protocols natively on Bitcoin.

ArchVM will handle off-chain computations to enable «Turing-complete smart contracts at the Bitcoin base layer» and provide Solana-like transaction speeds, Arch Labs said in the announcement.

The goal of introducing smart contracts to Bitcoin began to gather steam in October with the release of the BitVM computing language.

Numerous projects are now using BitVM as the basis for bringing smart contracts to Bitvcoin via layer-2 networks or bridges. Arch’s aim is to avoid the need to bridge assets to layer-2s, which could present additional risks.

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