SoFi launched cryptocurrency trading for some of its customers Tuesday.
The rollout makes good on a promise CEO Anthony Noto made in April to relaunch crypto trading for retail customers amid a “fundamental shift” in the regulatory landscape. SoFi said it was the first nationally chartered bank to offer the service.
The digital bank began allowing customers to buy, sell and hold crypto in 2019, but it shuttered the service in late 2023 amid its pursuit of a national banking license.
All 12.6 million SoFi customers will be able to trade crypto through their SoFi app by year’s end, the company said.
“Today marks a pivotal moment when banking meets crypto in one app, on a trusted platform, and driven by our core mission to help our members get their money right,” Noto said in a prepared statement Tuesday.
“I believe blockchain technology will fundamentally change EVERY way finance is done throughout the world by making money movement faster, cheaper and safer, while opening new ways for people to borrow better, invest better, spend and save better,” he said. “It’s critical to give our members a secure and regulated way to step into the future of money.”
According to a bank survey, 60% of crypto-owning SoFi customers would rather buy, sell and hold crypto with a licensed bank over their primary crypto exchange. Crypto and other digital assets are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., however.
SoFi said its launch of SoFi Crypto is the beginning of a broader strategy to integrate blockchain into its entire ecosystem. At present, the bank uses the blockchain to power global remittances. It plans to introduce its own stablecoin – as JPMorgan Chase and Société Générale have done – and plans to integrate crypto into its lending and infrastructure services.
Federal financial regulators have done an about-face on crypto and digital assets since January, when President Donald Trump took office after vowing to make the U.S. “the crypto capital of the world.” The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, FDIC and Federal Reserve each clarified in March and April that banks can engage in crypto-asset activities, reversing Biden-era guidance that discouraged banks from touching the novel asset.
With regulators on board and interest on the rise, traditional financial institutions are eager to play in the crypto field, including through partnership.
Morgan Stanley will begin offering crypto trading on its E*Trade platform early next year, and PNC will begin to offer the service through a partnership with Coinbase in the near future.
