Casey Wagner

<div id="highlights-block_62571c66e7bc6" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>FIS clients will now use Fireblocks’ platform for crypto trading and investment exposure</li>
 <li>Fireblocks hit a valuation of $8 billion earlier this year</li>
 </ul>
 
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Payment giant Fidelity National Information Services (FIS) Wednesday partnered with cryptocurrency custody firm Fireblocks to provide an institutional solution for safeguarding digital assets.



FIS’ capital markets clients will now move, store and issue digital assets through Fireblocks’ services and wallet platform. FIS clients will also be able to access stacking and lending tools, DeFi assets and “other more advanced forms of digital asset exposure,” the companies said in a <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220413005068/en/FIS-Teams-with-Fireblocks-to-Accelerate-Crypto-Adoption-within-Capital-Markets-Industry-Globally" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>.



“As digital currencies become more mainstream, capital markets firms will greatly benefit from a single destination that helps them manage many classes of digital assets,” Nasser Khodri, head of capital markets at FIS, said. “This exciting new agreement is a proof point of our commitment to invest in growing our digital asset capabilities for our global client base.”



The move comes shortly after Fireblocks hit a valuation of more than $8 billion, following a $550 million <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fireblocks-raises-550-million/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Series E funding round</a> in January. Fireblocks’ investors include Fidelity-backed venture capital firms Eight Roads and MState. 



It is “inevitable that every business will need to work with crypto or digital assets,” Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov told Blockworks at the time.



FIS’ interest in expanding its digital asset offerings comes as more institutional investors and asset managers are starting to take a closer look at the industry. The vast majority — <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fidelity-most-institutional-investors-open-to-crypto-want-an-etf/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">84%</a> — of American and European big-money investors are interested in investment vehicles with exposure to digital assets, according to <a href="https://www.fidelitydigitalassets.com/articles/digital-asset-study-2021?sf249449858=1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Fidelity Digital Assets’ 2021 Institutional Investor Digital Assets Study</a>.



“Data continues to show institutional investors expect the digital assets industry to more closely mirror that of other asset classes – whether that’s multiple product types covering a variety of investment strategies or the ability to access digital asset investments through traditional financial firms,” Peter Jubber, a managing director at Fidelity Digital Funds, said.



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Institutional Asset Manager Enlists Fireblocks To Help With Crypto Security

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_60dca90d025b5" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Some of those institutions include North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank, which has more than $50 billion in assets, and California’s Bay Federal Credit Union, which has over $1.4 billion in assets. </li>
 <li>Last week, NYDIG and Fiserv announced they will team up to help consumers get bitcoin into their bank accounts, which could help users access cryptocurrency without going through an external exchange.</li>
 </ul>
 
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The National Cash Register (NCR) and NYDIG, a digital asset management firm, will partner to help US banks offer bitcoin to clients, according to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2021/06/30/6-billion-ncr-opens-bitcoin-purchases-to-650-banks-and-credit-unions/?sh=39030e3d3f82">reports</a>.&nbsp;



The partnership will allow 650 US-based banks and credit unions to offer crypto trading services and bitcoin purchases to about 24 million customers through mobile applications built by NCR in the coming months.&nbsp;



Some of those financial institutions include North Carolina-based First Citizens Bank, which has more than $50 billion in assets, and California’s Bay Federal Credit Union, which has over $1.4 billion in assets.&nbsp;



NCR did not respond to immediate requests for comments by Blockworks on June 30, but a spokesperson for NYDIG told Blockworks, “NCR is the latest in a series of partnership announcements that kicked off last week.”



NYDIG also has a full page Wall Street Journal ad out today signed by its five banking partners, Alkami, FIS, Fiserv, NCR and Q2, about bringing bitcoin to the people, the spokesperson said.&nbsp;



The advertisement said, “In the coming months, we will be making bitcoin easy to access through America’s financial institutions. From community banks to global firms, hundreds of millions of customers will gain access to this new and powerful network.”



And NYDIG’s goal? To help make bitcoin accessible to all, it said.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">In the coming months, financial institutions and millions of consumers will gain access to the powerful <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Bitcoin</a> network. We&#39;re proud to come together with these innovative companies to help make Bitcoin accessible to all.  <a href="https://t.co/IhKQl6SCcd">https://t.co/IhKQl6SCcd</a> <a href="https://t.co/Dq59LSsZa9">pic.twitter.com/Dq59LSsZa9</a>&mdash; NYDIG (@NYDIG_BTC) <a href="https://twitter.com/NYDIG_BTC/status/1410231283540713472?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 30, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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As it stands, if someone wanted to buy bitcoin today, they would need to venture onto a digital asset exchange like Robinhood, PayPal or Coinbase, all of which currently have a market hold on retail-facing cryptocurrency trading and services.



But this partnership is aiming to break into the external space and help offer crypto trading and custody internally to clients who want to participate.&nbsp;



The NCR announcement isn’t the first time NYDIG has invested or partnered with bank technology organizations to provide cryptocurrency to users. As the NYDIG spokesperson said to Blockworks, NYDIG has created a series of partnerships recently.&nbsp;



Last week, NYDIG and Fiserv announced it will team up to help consumers get bitcoin into their bank accounts, which could help users access cryptocurrency without going through an external exchange, Blockworks <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/nydig-and-fiserv-team-up-to-put-bitcoin-in-consumers-bank-accounts/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.&nbsp;



In May, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fis-opens-bitcoin-floodgates-for-banks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NYDIG also announced a partnership</a> with NCR and Fiserv’s competitor FIS to allow customers at its banking clients to purchase cryptocurrency. At the time, FIS said it was exploring providing the ability to accrue interest on banking clients’ bitcoin balances.



Now, the 650 banks that decide to make the service available will rely on NYDIG’s custody services instead of dealing with regulatory requirements of actually holding the cryptocurrency for clients, Forbes <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2021/06/30/6-billion-ncr-opens-bitcoin-purchases-to-650-banks-and-credit-unions/?sh=39030e3d3f82" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.



The first phase of the NYDIG partnership will let NCR banking clients buy, sell and trade bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from their mobile application.&nbsp;



&#8220;A lot of these banks have seen that one of the biggest outflows from their depositors is moving money from the bank to exchanges like Coinbase,&#8221; NYDIG President Yan Zhao told Forbes. &#8220;And so that&#8217;s part of why banks are so excited to have this capability for themselves and for their consumers.&#8221;

NYDIG and NCR are Bringing Bitcoin to the People

Sam Reynolds

<div id="highlights-block_60d3a69455385" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Fiserv would offer software that plugs in to existing banking web portals to allow banking clients to trade cryptocurrency customized by NYDIG </li>
 <li>NYDIG had previously announced a partnership FIS in May, but it doesn’t appear that anything came to fruition</li>
 </ul>
 
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If you want to buy bitcoin today, you need to venture on to a digital assets exchange or use a payments service like PayPal. Banking software provider Fiserv wants to change this through a partnership with NYDIG that would offer software to banks that allow their clients to purchase bitcoin directly from their online banking portal.&nbsp;



“Interest in cryptocurrency, and particularly bitcoin, has skyrocketed over the past several years, to the point that bitcoin investing is now a commonplace activity,” said Byron Vielehr, chief digital and data officer at Fiserv in a <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210623005650/en/Financial-Institutions-Can-Now-Provide-Consumers-Easy-Access-to-Bitcoin-via-Fiserv-and-NYDIG" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>. “People continue to turn to financial institutions as a central place to manage their financial activity, and being able to offer this capability will help position banks and credit unions at the forefront of their customers’ financial lives.”



A spokesperson for Fiserv did not immediately respond to requests for comments, however both Fiserv and NYDIG state in the announcement that they already have a first customer lined up: California-based First Foundation Bank. First Foundation, which owns the bank and offers wealth management services to high net worth individuals, also made a strategic investment in NYDIG.



“Digital assets have caught the eye of consumers and investors,” said Scott F. Kavanaugh, CEO of First Foundation, said in a statement. “If our industry is truly committed to innovation and the financial future of our clients, we need to lead in this area and help create a secure and trusted platform for using bitcoin for everyday financial matters.”



This isn’t the first time NYDIG has attempted this. In May, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/fis-opens-bitcoin-floodgates-for-banks/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NYDIG announced</a> that it had formed a partnership with Fiserv-rival FIS to allow customers at its banking clients to purchase cryptocurrency. At the time, FIS said it was exploring providing the ability to accrue interest on banking clients’ bitcoin balances.



As Blockworks reported at the time, FIS’ client list includes larger banks while Fiserv generally targets smaller institutions like credit unions.



A PR rep for NYDIG says the partnership with FIS is still active, while the Fiserv engagement is an &#8220;additional partnership.&#8221; An earlier version of this story had said the partnership was abandoned.