Though we are generally wary about banks getting into cryptocurrency I am still considering this as a good news because this can help this industry spread to as many people as possible.
I'd definitely be wary--if a bank sells you bitcoin, you can be sure they're tracking where you send it, just like Coinbase does. And although they might not be able to determine who the recipient is or whether the coins were used for anything shady, who knows what the banks would do with that information. On the other hand, if you have a bank account they can track everything you spend your money on anyway, so it's probably not that big a deal.Personally I'd like to be able to purchase crypto for cash without having to resort to an exchange. It was so nice when Circle was providing that service, even though that's just about the same as buying bitcoin from a bank. I have a feeling that these kinds of services aren't going to become widespread in the US anytime soon, but we'll see how it works out in the countries where banks are starting to do this.
One thing I wonder is whether banks are going to keep bitcoin on hand or whether they're going to act as a third party, just buying it from wherever when a customer wants to buy it from them. I don't think there's enough bitcoin in existence to allow banks to buy it in anticipation of customer orders, nor do I think they'd want to bear the risk of keeping a volatile asset like bitcoin on their books.
