One of Australia’s largest banks pauses in-app crypto pilot amid market downturn: Guardian

Cryptocurrency • May 19, 2022, 3:05PM EDT
The Block

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, a Sydney-based bank with multinational operations, has paused testing features allowing crypto sales on its app amid the crypto market downturn and regulatory uncertainty. 

Commonwealth announced plans to pilot crypto trading and custody features in November of 2021. Users could purchase 10 assets of bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and other cryptocurrencies, with the potential to add more features in 2022 after more tests. 

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However, Commonwealth paused rollout on Thursday with no current plans of resuming, according to Guardian Australia, 

Commonwealth CEO Matt Comyn cited UST and Luna crashes as the main reason for current market volatility, adding that more regulation would be needed before re-activating and advancing crypto trading features.

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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