The San Juan Mercantile Bank & Trust International (SJMBT) in Puerto Rico will be the first bank to launch a platform dedicated to crypto trading.
According to reports, just one month after the issuance of the International Financial Entity (IFE) license by the Office of the Commission of Financial Institutions (OCIF), SJMBT has already announced that it has received its first deposit and has started operations for the launch of its crypto trading platform.
The bank will offer custody and asset settlement services for both fiat and cryptocurrencies, integrating everything with its affiliate, the San Juan Mercantile Exchange SJMX, to carry out trading operations.
In fact, based on this integration, it is assumed that there will be extra benefits that users can enjoy such as, for example, the consideration of customer balances on deposit at the bank when setting the trading limits, thus allowing the bank itself to regulate all trades in real time.
Nick Varelakis, President and COO of SJMBT, said:
“Commencing SJMBT banking operations is a significant milestone. Institutional market participants in the digital asset space now have access to a licensed, fully regulated and operational banking partner that provides a secure environment for the matching and settlement of digital asset trades. As more liquidity venues onboard with SJMX to trade digital assets, SJMBT will provide critical services, such as real-time settlement and account re-balancing, in support of our customers’ trading activities”.
In addition, it is specified that the SJMX will be able to begin crypto trading operations through the SJMX Dark Pool platform and its OTC (Over the Counter) service called SJMX Blocks.
Finally, both the SJMBT bank and the SJMX crypto trading platforms, both subsidiaries of Mercantile Global Holdings, Inc. (MGH) are known to offer a unique service, an end-to-end solution, from trade matching to clearing and custody of both digital assets and legal currencies.