The president of the Santander bank confirmed the news that it would offer a Bitcoin ETF to its clients in Spain.
Banco Santander announced that it would soon launch a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), Spanish media reported this week.
In this way, the Spanish bank will be able to satisfy the demand of its clients who want to invest in cryptocurrencies through a regulated product, said Ana Botín herself, president of the financial institution.
In this regard, the entity expressed that cryptocurrencies will be the most relevant issue in the finance industry in the short term. Botin also said that crypto is the big issue for the next few years; even when these assets get there, Santander would become a pioneer in the industry.
Botín also highlighted that this bank project is a consequence of customer requests and growing demand. However, she confessed that they performed slow actions in response to that call.
The representative also considers that regarding the crypto world, there is a lot of innovation from the private sector, but it is vital that the public upgrade their stances on the matter.
The question from now on is how central banks are going to handle the issue, considering whether they are going to administer it themselves or if they are going to create a legal framework and tell us how to do it.
Santander and its Relationship with the Crypto-World
Before this announcement, Santander had dabbled in crypto and other projects. It has worked with the Ripple Blockchain for remittances and made the first bank exchange of a bond in Ethereum.
Santander appeared to be the only entity that has automated the entire procedure in a public chain. Santander announced in 2019 that it would become the first institution to use a public blockchain to manage the bond issuance in its entirety.
According to the note, the bank used a custom token in Ethereum to represent the $ 20 million bond. Said bond got resolved with another coin as a counterpart that represented the cash in a custody account.
It is worth remembering that, until recently, the possibility of Bitcoin ETFs was closed in countries like the United States of America. However, since last month several ETFs got subsequently launched in the North American nation, with the solid endorsement of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
However, in a country like Spain, this type of product has not yet been registered. The Securities Market Commission (CNMV), which plays the role of the regulatory entity in that country, warned banks that they would not be able to manage or market ETFs in Spain without their prior authorization.
Santander told Bloomberg that they are leaders in crypto. They currently issue the first bond on the Blockchain and have a strong team working on it. Their clients want to purchase Bitcoin, but they have been slow to adopt it due to a series of regulatory issues.
By: Jenson Nuñez
