UK banking behemoth Barclay’s is looking forward to entering into the accelerating cryptocurrency market. Pointing towards the linked in profiles of two members in lenders, the business insider reported on Monday that they have been working on the project.
Chris Tyrer, EX- chief of energy trading at Barclays, at present lists his occupation as ‘Head of Digital Assets Project: Barclay’s Investment Bank’. In the meanwhile, Matthieu Jobbe Duval, the former director of oil-options exchanging at the company, now explains his position as “Digital-assets trading- consultant at Barclays”. He further stated in his LinkedIn profile that the bank had hired him to create a business plan for embedding digital assets exchanging desk into market’s business profit opportunity, planning, budgeting and competitive landscape for delivery I.T. build out, capital and balance sheet impact.
Mr Duval confirmed to a business insider that the data was precise, but he refused to elaborate and deleted the details about his present situation from his Linkedin page. Tyrer declined to give any statement, but he didn’t change his profile on the network site.
Barclay’s representative contacted by the news outlet stated that the company was not planning to offer crypto exchanging services or working on any digital assets project.
Previously in April, Bloomberg stated that Barclay’s was evaluating the need and feasibility of crypto exchanging desk. CEO Jes Staley refused the rumours, however by saying that the bank had no such concrete methods to start trading cryptocurrencies but continuously monitored the developments in the space.
Many other major banks are also discussing or already opting onto the cryptocurrency bandwagon. In December 2017, Goldman Sachs confirmed that it was preparing to launch a virtual currency trading desk. According to the latest media reports, the lender is also considering a custody service for digital coin-based funds.
Peer-JP Morgan also may be changing his mind related to digital currencies after CEO Jamie Dimon had earlier slammed Bitcoin (BTC). In the previous months, the US Bank has been constructing a crypto-asset strategic team.
