Last year was supposed to be the year of Bitcoin institutionalization. Institutional investors were expected to flood the market and provide enough liquidity for Bitcoin price to spike significantly. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen because of a lack of a clear regulatory framework and Bitcoin custody services. Now, every Bitcoin price prediction 2019 you see will list the entrance of institutional investors as one of the major catalysts that will boost the price and adoption of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Swissquote, Major Swiss Bank, Now Offers Bitcoin Custody Services
Swissquote is a major online banking group that has a market valuation of about $618 million. On Friday, the platform announced that it has entered a partnership with Crypto Storage to facilitate the provision of Bitcoin custody services. This will allow institutional investors to make cryptocurrency transfers between their Swissquote accounts and external wallets.
This isn’t the first move Swissquote is making into the cryptocurrency space. Two years ago, the platform launched a cryptocurrency trading system that allows clients to trade some of the top digital assets; BTC, LTC, ETH, and XRP.
Bitcoin (BTC) Price Today – BTC / USD
| Name | Price | 24H % |
|---|---|---|
 | $0.00 | -0.15% |
This new partnership with the FinTech company, Crypto Storage is going to make the Bitcoin custody services excellent. This is because Crypto Storage provides a “proprietary infrastructural solution that allows users to digitally and physically manage their private keys on high-grade security modules.” It is similar to the security modules used by the Swiss National Bank.
Apart from the regular soft theft of cryptocurrency wallet private keys, there can also be written in a piece of paper and stolen. This is why Crypto Storage hides all the private keys it stores inside a military bunker in a secret location. These bunkers are so strong that they cannot be affected by a nuclear bomb.
Bitcoin Custody Services Across The Globe
As Swissquote announced that it would be partnering with Crypto Storage to provide top-notch Bitcoin custody services to institutional clients, the company also mentioned its expansion plans. Currently, Swissquote is trying to penetrate the Asian market. A branch has already been founded in Singapore and is making arrangements to apply for a capital markets services license from the MAS. The company also said that it would be listing 14 Asian based exchanges on its platform.
Bitcoin Price Prediction 2019: What Will Custody Bring?
First of all, expanding its services will make the custodian and cryptocurrency trading services available to a wider market. The company is going to lose about $10 million in profit because of this expansion. What this means is that the products and services Swissquote will be offering are going to yield maximum earnings. The fact that it is offering Bitcoin custody services means that it sees the potential of Bitcoin and recognizes the transformative power of blockchain technology.
It also shows that there is a high demand from institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space. With Bitcoin (BTC) currently struggling to cross the $4,000, this kind of news is just what is needed to support the price of BTC. Right now, the flagship cryptocurrency is trading at $3,930.93. This shows that it is up by 0.36%. The 24 hour trading volume is $10,266,097,811 and the market capitalization is $69,108,678,887.
What is your Bitcoin price prediction 2019? Is a bull run inevitable? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
Max writes about blockchain projects and regulation with a special focus on United States and China. He joined Smarterum after years of writing for various media outlets.
