Bank Of America: Bitcoin Is Important But Digital Asset Ecosystem Is Much More Important

Bank of America interested in digital assets (Bloomberg)

JAKARTA – Bank of America has started to conduct research on digital assets such as cryptocurrencies. They announced the title of the research report which was “Primary Digital Assets: Only the first inning”.

“Reports reveal that digital assets are too big to ignore,” the report said. In addition, the research results also reveal that “Primer provides an investment framework for the digital asset landscape,” as quoted from Bitcoin.com News.

Its key topics include smart contracts, stablecoins, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The research team from Bank of America was formed last July. The research was led by Alkesh Shah, chairman of the Bank's Global Cryptocurrency and Digital Asset Strategy.

“Bitcoin is important but the digital asset ecosystem is much more important. Our research aims to explore implications across industries including finance, technology, supply chain, social media and gaming,” said Shah.

In addition, the chairman of Bank of America Global Research, Candace Browning also expressed his opinion. He explained that digital assets have changed the way markets, businesses and banks operate.

“Digital assets are changing the way markets, businesses and central banks operate. Bank of America offers a market-leading global payments platform and blockchain expertise, and the addition of digital asset research further strengthens the depth and breadth of our offering to investors,” said Browning.

Browning revealed that the reason for launching the digital asset research results was due to the increasing institutional and retail interest in cryptocurrencies. This was conveyed by Browning in an interview with Bloomberg TV.

“If you look at the number of companies mentioning crypto in corporate earnings calls, it went from about 17 years ago to about 147 in the most recent quarter,” he said.

“It (crypto) is evolving, it's mainstream, and it's not just bitcoin… it's a digital asset and it creates a new enterprise ecosystem, new opportunities, and new applications,” Browning added.