Garanti BBVA Financial Technologies, the fintech subsidiary of Turkey's Garanti BBVA Bank, has launched its first venture with a leap into the digital asset trading and custody industry.
With pilots already in progress, the new company will initially provide services for transfer and custody of bitcoin and ether in the cryptoassets market.
Garanti BBVA Digital Assets chairman, M. Çağrı Süzer says the group has formed a "sizeable team" that focuses on developing state of the art blockchain technologies.
"Our research shows that customers significantly value trust in their crypto transactions and especially on its storage," he says. "Hence, we are happy to launch our Crypto Custody Wallet addressing these real needs. Our app is now live with its beta version. It will provide custody services for BTC and Ether at first, and will keep expanding with new products and services.”
For Spanish bank BBVA, the venture marks its second foray into the digital asset market. After six months of testing with a selected group of users, BBVA Switzerland in June made its first crypto-asset trading and custody service available to all its private banking clients.