By Juhi Mirza
Updated
3 min read
Formerly known as Valley National Bank, Vast has become the first US bank to offer direct access to crypto to its clients.
Vast Bank which is currently headquartered in Oklahoma has now adopted the crypto drive and will be offering direct access to cryptocurrency to its customers via their mobile banking app. The feature embedded in the app will allow the users to purchase Bitcoin and conduct other proceedings with the help of cryptocurrency.
The bank has been experimenting with this feature where customers were allowed to make purchases via crypto from their accounts in the first half of the year. The bank is now ready to offer purchases to be made in seven different types of cryptocurrency including Bitcoin and Cardano.
In February, the bank had started experimenting with the feature where they would allow their customers to purchase cryptocurrency directly from their bank accounts. Now the bank has enabled a sophisticated app system where users can see their crypto bank account along with their fiat currency accounts. Moreover, the bank will also provide access to their consumers to purchase seven distinctive cryptocurrency variants including Bitcoin, Cardano, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Orchid, and Algorand.
Vast CEO Brad Scrivner has opined that there have been many instances where consumers have raised this query of wanting to purchase cryptocurrency but were reluctant to do so, primarily due to having no direct bank account access. Now we have made sure that the consumers can trade in crypto using a standardized bank account to manage their financial input and output. He further stated that cryptocurrency indeed will become an integral part of the world’s financial ecosystem and needs to be a part of the banking infrastructure.
Recently banks, as well as fintech companies who have been involved with such banks, have been actively working to develop crypto-based products to help such institutions capture these assets, otherwise, such assets become the property of exchanges. Vast has successfully managed to acquire a total earning of $783 million in the first quarter and continues to draw revenue with its contemporary new ideations.
The new mobile feature is said to be an interactive experience for users who will be dealing with cryptocurrency for the first time. The app will permit users to buy a cryptocurrency and store it in their Vast Bank-authorized crypto accounts. Along with that, the users will still have access to their traditional bank accounts and shall have the liberty to use those accounts to purchase crypto.
Vast Bank, which was founded in 1982, is a family-owned bank that has become the first nationally chartered bank in the United States to offer direct access to cryptocurrency to its customers. The bank’s unique feature to host a crypto account alongside a traditional fiat account has garnered immense praise and acclaim in the particular domain
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Juhi Mirza is an archaeology major who is obsessive about blockchain/Crypto technology and deems it to be the foundational philosophy of the future. Her dogged ability to research and crystallise technical facts/multiple perspectives into rivetting stories makes her an accessible finance writer. She tends to her archaeological pursuits and loves unearthing the past over the weekends.
