Bitcoin Daily: SBI Holdings Aims To Make Crypto A ‘Core Pillar;’ Bitcoin Climbs To Almost $50,000

Buoyed by recent high profile investments, bitcoin reached a new all-time high of $50,000 on Sunday (Feb. 14), according to CNBC.

Bitcoin, which is the world’s largest cryptocurrency, saw its value surge by over 5 percent and hit its new record of $49,716, according to data from CoinDesk.

The course did reverse by Monday, as the value sank a little back down to around $47,925.

The surge came after a number of high-profile companies turned the spotlight on the crypto, including Tesla‘s $1.5 billion investment and BNY Mellon starting a new service to allow for cryptocurrency to be used on its custody services.

Deutsche Bank, according to a new report, is looking at implementing a platform for digital asset custody.

The goal is for the bank to provide “seamless connectivity to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem,” the report says.

Deutsche Bank aims to put together a secure connected bridge between digital assets and a customer’s regular bank. It will allow the user to manage their digital assets and fiat holdings in one simple menu, and safety will be ensured through an “institutional-grade hot/cold storage solution” with high-quality protection.

SBI Holdings, the Japanese conglomerate, is working on talks with international financial firms on potential joint ventures in cryptocurrency, with the company looking to broaden its profitability, Reuters writes.

Founder Yoshitaka Kitao, who started the company in 1999, made the comments as cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum are growing in popularity. Kitao, 70, said the world wasn’t the same as how some investors remembered, in which investments went into stocks or bonds. He said it wasn’t an “either-or” situation now, as more investors were looking at crypto.

Steve Vallas, CEO of advocacy body Blockchain Australia, said the country’s cryptocurrency and blockchain companies need more support from the federal government to help wind up confidence in the sector there, CoinDesk writes.

Vallas, speaking at the Senate Select Committee on Financial Technology and Regulatory Technology on Thursday (Feb. 11), said Australia had seen little innovation to blockchain in recent years. He said there needed to be “more signals” from regulators that they were willing to have open discussions.