Barclays Plc Might Add Crypto Trading Desk To its Services

By Prashant Jha

The recent surge of traditional banks foraying into the cryptocurrency space is not just limited to JP Morgan and the JPM coin, as per the latest report published by Bloomberg, Barclays Plc is considering to open a crypto trading desk into its current system.

The British bank has not taken any concrete steps towards venturing into the crypto space, however, the bank has invested in the preliminary assessment of the trading desk. If the bank proceeds with its plan to open the trading desk for crypto trading services, it would be a major step towards making crypto use a norm.

Barclays would become one of the only members in the large European investment institutions to foray into crypto space. The recent surge of traditional banking systems foraying into crypto space is being attributed to one of the longest crypto winters that the blockchain space has witnessed recently.

A few months ago, one of the analysts at JP Morgan went on to explain why there is a sudden surge of traditional banks venturing into the decentralized space of cryptocurrency. According to the analyst, the bearish trends in the market is not all bad, as it has cut down a significant amount of volatility factor.

Traditional bankers and investors often refrained from venturing into space as the price volatility of the cryptocurrencies brought a ton of risk which these traditional bankers were not ready to take.

Investment Chief and CEO of Barclays Hold the Key

Investment chief Tim Throsby and CEO Jess Staley would play a very prominent role in giving a go-ahead to the plans. Both Throsby and Staley are known for taking risks and have been a part of the decision-making process in the past which was quite risky even from their standards.

The demand for crypto trading and even crypto hedge funds have risen significantly over the last year, and if traditional banking sectors decide to jump on the bandwagon, it would be beneficial to both the spaces.

Crypto Space can see itself being accepted more widely, which might reduce the volatility factor even lower, while the traditional banks can become a part of the crypto game which always portrayed it as the anti-protagonist.

Final Thoughts

Barclays Plc is one of the largest investment banking system in Europe and if the decision of opening the trading desk for cryptocurrencies gets finalized, it would become among the very few and only European banks to venture into the crypto trading services.