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The price of bitcoin is holding steady above $19,000 despite a wild midweek swing last week. The world’s largest cryptoasset began trading last week around $19,250, trending to just below $19,000 midweek. 

But a wild day for markets on Thursday saw the price plummet to below $18,200 - before surging above $19,500 on the eToro platform. The price is now holding steady again above $19,000. 

Ether meanwhile saw a similar swing on Thursday, falling below $1,200 before surging above $1,325. It is currently moving just below $1,300. 

The volatility underpins a febrile moment for markets which are appearing to react hard and fast to any economic developments, with the future progress of inflation and rate rises especially tricky to divine at the moment. 
 

BNY Mellon to custody crypto

One of the US’s largest and oldest banks, BNY Mellon, has announced it will begin accepting cryptoassets from its clients. The firm received regulatory approval earlier this year to do so and will now custody cryptoassets alongside traditional investments for customers.

While it is still in the relatively early days, the lines between traditional and crypto finance are beginning to blur. When major venerable institutions such as BNY Mellon move into the sector it is clear that change is underway, not just in terms of the crypto market, but for old-school finance as well. 

Gone are the days when crypto is seen as a niche pursuit, with customers condemned to holding their cryptoassets on platforms with low protections and guarantees. The point of a bank is to securely hold your wealth. If that wealth is now in crypto, it makes sense for the bank to be prepared for that. 
 

Google Cloud to begin accepting crypto

Google Cloud has announced it will begin accepting some cryptoassets as a form of payment in 2023. The functionality will be provided through Coinbase Commerce and will include the facility to pay with cryptoassets such as bitcoin, ether, dogecoin, and litecoin. 

Interestingly the move includes Coinbase moving some of its web hosting and data to Google Cloud, a growing competitor to Amazon Web Services (AWS) - the goliath of the web hosting sector. This isn’t the first partnership by Google in terms of blockchain and crypto. Google Cloud has partnered with a variety of projects in the past. 

This isn’t going to move mountains in terms of market valuations, but every example of a major institution beginning to accept crypto is a step forward for the sector which is working hard to provide alternative payment and custody methods to users. 

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