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Cowen Investment bank, a century-old investment solution provider announced today that they would be offering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency custody services to hedge funds and asset managers. The bank has become the first wall street giant to offer institution-grade custody service in association with Standard Custody and Trust co. The investment bank is also investing $25 million in PolySign Inc.

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Jeffrey Solomon, Cowen’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.

“The demand is here.  We’re going to be able to help a lot of our institutional clients get over the hump and start trading digital assets in the not-too-distant future.”

Solomon went onto add that the decision was purely based on growing demand and explained,

“If you’re an institutional investor with a fiduciary requirement, the bar is extremely high for you to put investments in any asset that does not have a clear chain of custody that you can access at a moment’s notice,” he said. “Even if you had a view on the asset class, if you can’t demonstrate custody then you can’t trade it.”

Wall Street Giants Continue to Push Bitcoin Adoption Amid Growing FUD

Several wall street giants including some of the staunch former critics in JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs also announced bitcoin investment vehicles for their institutional clients amid growing demand, but most of them have avoided offering direct custody service amid regulatory uncertainties from the top regulatory bodies. Thus the move from Cowen reaffirms growing institutional confidence in Bitcoin and other digital assets despite growing FUD in the market.

Earlier today Elon Musk reignited the Bitcoin energy consumption fud after suspending the Bitcoin payment option for Tesla cars just after a month of adding the Bitcoin payment option for US customers. however, that doesn’t seem to affect the wall street giants as well as Bitcoin miners as mining difficulty of the network spiked by 21% to register a new ATH

About Author

An engineering graduate, Prashant focuses on UK and Indian markets. As a crypto-journalist, his interests lie in blockchain technology adoption across emerging economies.