Italian Bank Hype to Offer Bitcoin Buy Option to 1 Million Customers Thanks to Milan Bitcoin Startup Conio

Popular mobile banking platform Hype has introduced the ability to buy bitcoin (BTC) in-app after inking a partnership with fintech firm Conio. The Italian Challenger Bank, which services 1.2 million customers (2% of the country’s population), will give customers the chance to buy, sell, spend and store the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, saving them the time and trouble of using an exchange.

Banca Sella Gets into the Bitcoin Business

Hype is a subsidiary of banking giant Banca Sella, which was the first financial institution in Italy to offer e-commerce payments and an exclusively online account. Introduced in 2015, Hype allows the legacy bank to reach a younger crowd, and its new bitcoin trading service is an attempt to build on its popularity with a largely millennial audience.

Hype tabbed Milan-based crypto service Conio to develop its fully-integrated bitcoin wallet, which lets users retain full access and control of their funds (“Not your keys, not your coins” is a popular proclamation against crypto exchanges and custodial wallets). Bitcoin can be purchased at the touch of a button using customers’ credit balance, and funds easily dispatched to other accounts.

Image: team Conio

Conio’s advanced storage solution uses three private keys for the wallet, with one kept on the user’s smartphone, another on Conio’s servers and a third retained offline by Hype. Two keys are required to authorize any transaction, meaning hackers are unable to steal funds and customers who lose their handset can regain access to accounts.

Bitcoin Buying on Lockdown

With Italy enduring a nationwide lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and distrust of contaminated coins and banknotes swirling, Hype’s introduction of a comprehensive bitcoin trading-and-custody service seems timely. According to company CEO Antonio Valitutti "Over 13% of our customers demanded bitcoin. We heard them, and we did our best to bring them the best solution.”

“Banks must not be afraid of cryptocurrencies, but can instead embrace them and make this sector grow,” added Conio co-founder Christian Miccoli.

“People are now becoming more and more cautious of coins and paper money, since there is a fear these may spread the disease. In this scenario, a digital currency may offer cleaner solutions for the future,” added Conio Co-Founder Vincenzo Di Nicola.

As it presently does with other currencies, the Hype app will make real-time price data available to users, so they can weigh up the pros and cons of buying bitcoin at any particular time. It’ll also show the mining fee associated with each transaction, with the bank claiming a 1% commission on all transactions. Daily purchases will be capped at €500 for Hype Start accounts and €4,990 for Premium Accounts; annual limits, meanwhile, will be €2,500 and €50,000 respectively.

Italians Are Embracing Bitcoin

According to a SEMRush report published last year, bitcoin is the third most popular method for online payments in Italy, outperforming American Express (AXP) and surpassed only by PayPal (PYPL) and PostePay. Between October 2018 and September 2019, the digital currency was used over 215,800 times per month. It’s easy to see that figure rising given Hype’s announcement – particularly since the number of Italian retailers accepting BTC is also growing.

Crypto advocates have long heralded bitcoin as the ultimate safe-haven asset, an immutable, incorruptible hedge against aggressive expansionary monetary policies pursued by central banks. And with major liquidity packages announced to combat COVID-19 – including €3.6 billion stimulus in Italy – the deflationary decentralized currency may prove popular with Hype’s young, tech-savvy demographic. Bitcoin has clawed back 46% of its price since tumbling in last week’s frenzied sell-off, and investors are watching its performance with interest amid the corona-led slowdown.
 

Image sourced by Pixabay