Royal Bank Of Canada May Launch Own Crypto Exchange Platform

The introduction of crypto in the financial system didn't start with sweeping acceptance but with plenty of eyebrows raised and finance leaders throwing shade at it. Yet, JP Morgan's entry in the crypto space with their version of a digital coin launched this year proved that there's no denying the underlying technology of digital currencies. Now, another bank is making headway into the revolution -- The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC).

The media outlet Logic first reported on Monday that RBC is planning on launching a crypto platform exchange for investing purposes, and it also wants to utilize the blockchain technology to serve its 16 million clients -- something it has been exploring since 2017.

What the Toronto-based bank aims to do, according to the same report, is to allow clients to trade Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH). RBC also intends to combine both worlds with a bank account that can accommodate both fiat and digital assets.

CEO David McKay spoke on the World Economic Forum on Davos explained how the bank plans to use blockchain:

"We're experimenting with taking an asset and breaking it into smaller pieces and registering that in a decentralised register called blockchain. You can take an asset or even a company and create a unit on a decentralised blockchain and then sell that into the marketplace."

Logic also claims that it had discovered patent applications of RBC that link to a cryptocurrency platform, but is unclear about how those patents are going to serve the bank. RBC has not provided any official comments.

Changing times
Back in 2017, at the height of the crypto mania, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon expressed his disapproval of Bitcoin and went as far as to say that the popular digital currency is a fraud and that he'd fire employees caught trading BTC.

But the world didn't see the death of Bitcoin just yet as it's looking to survive 2019 by being up more than 130% from the start of the year. The largest bank in the states also embraced blockchain and became the first bank to back cryptos. With RBC following suit, it may trigger a wave of other banks proselytizing themselves to integrate digital assets.

It's the kind of persistent force that John McAfee spoke about in Barcelona -- a force that didn't hinder people from doing what they want to do and is the same force that moved the use of marijuana to legalization. A large number of people using cryptocurrencies would mean that it can't be legislated away.