Bitcoin Drops 3 Percent Again, But Citigroup Still Interested In Starting Crypto Trading

Bitcoin trading fluctuations do not affect Citigroup's interest. (photo: unsplash)

JAKARTA – Bitcoin traded down more than 3% on Wednesday morning August 25. It costs about 48,150 US dollars per coin. While rivals Ethereum and Dogecoin are trading around $3,180 and $0.29 per coin, respectively, according to Coindesk.

but the decline did not affect the attitude of several large banks. Citigroup is considering offering bitcoin futures to some of its institutional clients. The increase in demand in the cryptocurrency space is the reason as quoted by a spokesperson for the bank.

The price of Bitcoin rose past US$50,000 earlier this week as adoption by companies and the wider community continues to increase.

Citi is now awaiting regulatory approval to begin trading bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, citing sources within the bank.

“Given the many questions surrounding the regulatory framework, supervisory expectations, and other factors, we are taking our approach very seriously”, a Citi spokesperson said in an email to Coindesk.

If approved, Citigroup will join Goldman Sachs in offering bitcoin futures trading.

In other cryptocurrency news, Budweiser goes into non-fungible tokens (NFT). Budweiser has added a profile photo of the rocket ship, designed by NFT artist Tom Sachs, to its Twitter page.

Coindesk also reported the brewer had purchased the domain name Beer.eth for 30 ether, or about $95,000. Budweiser has not yet responded to Coindesk for comment.

CoinDesk reported last month the beer brand is investing in a new NFT media store that will see intellectual property packaged and sold as NFT.