Estonia’s Biggest Bank LHV Opens Its Door For Crypto-Trading

Estonia’s largest bank LHV has announced to finally allow users in trading crypto-assets through its application, starting from next week. The latest decision would enable customers to trade major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin [BTC], Ethereum [ETH], and Chainlink [LINK] directly on the app using the digital exchange platform, Bitstamp.

Delving further, the app will feature users’ chosen crypto assets and allow them to manage in addition to other investments. Besides that, it will also provide pre-filled tax forms to the users in order to help declare their crypto transactions quickly and efficiently. As per the bank, the customer’s digital assets will be held securely on the BitGo platform, which is a part of the Galaxy Digital Group.

Further, the bank added that in the near future, they are planning to add new instruments, order types, and other tools for more efficient trading. Martin Mets, head of retail sales, channels, and investment Services at LHV stated that in the long term, they would closely monitor the evolving blockchain technology and would grab the opportunity to take the next step in developing the latest blockchain tools.

Citing the LHV latest announcement, Marcus Sotiriou, sales trader at digital asset brokerage firm GlobalBlock noted,

The LHV news is significant because it shows that the cryptocurrency industry is a global movement and gives weight to the argument that at some point every bank in the world will need to integrate crypto. 

At the moment, customers can start trading in eight selected major assets at market prices. These are Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin [LTC], Uniswap [UNI], Chainlink, Stellar Lumen [XLM], Polygon [MATIC], and Aave [AAVE]

Crypto trading adoption elsewhere

Earlier in November this year, Commonwealth Bank of Australia a.k.a CommBank had announced to provide its clients the option of trading in digital currencies on its banking app.

The latest news assumed significance against the backdrop of El Salvador’s recent declaration of building a ‘Bitcoin City’ backed by a billion Bitcoin Bonds. While many supporters lauded the move, others were critical of the development. A major financial entity, the International Monetary Fund [IMF] on Monday released a statement stating that ‘considering risks related to bitcoin, El Salvador should not use the cryptocurrency as legal tender.’