Leading Bank In Belgium Considers Launching Its Own Crypto

According to local media outlets, the leading bank in Belgium KBC is considering the idea of launching its own cryptocurrency as we can see more in our latest crypto news.

KBC is one of the leading banks and biggest insurance and banking companies in the country announced plans to launch its own crypto and change its approach to digital assets. The bank’s native cryptocurrency will be a kind of reward token that will allow the bank to work on interaction strategies with its customers that promote the platform and compel users to adopt their services.

The bank shared an announcement during the presentation of the first months of the virtual assistant “Kate” included in the banking app. Right now, the KBC coin is not available to the public but already entered the testing phase via a private environment. The bank didn’t disclose further details about the project’s roadmap in addition to the regulatory rules and the economic characteristics of the project so KBC is focused on the technological and privacy issues of its crypto. According to the local newspaper De Morgen, CEO Johan Thijs said that it wanted to protect the identity of the customers and to give them a platform that allows full control of their data.

KBC pointed out that their token has nothing to do with BTC or any other crypto on the market and noted that KBC will run only inside the bank’s infrastructure so that it will not be subject to major price swings which are elements of the traditional cryptocurrencies. The statements shared by Mr. Thijs give a rough idea of how the token will function if launched:

“This coin can initially be earned by loyal customers and spent on additional services … The coin will be in a closed system. It’s a ‘closed loop currency’. So it’s not a currency like the euro that allows you to go around the world and make payments everywhere … It’s a digital currency that we use in a certain environment, for example the customer environment.”

The distinction is crucial for the banks as it maintained a cautious stance on crypto for years now. Back in 2015, long before the ICO and crypto boom, KBC bank already warned clients on the risks associated with trading BTC and other cryptocurrencies. In a document from the bank’s archives, it can be seen that the banks see BTC as a risky asset in every term as some of the risks were unpredictable liquidity, complex investment, no underlying value, and technological risks.