By Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) chief executive Brian Moynihan says the Wall Street banks are all geared up to embrace cryptocurrencies – all they need is a push from the US regulatory authorities.
His comment follows the inauguration of Donald Trump who’s been rather vocal in favour of the crypto industry.
In fact, the Republican leader’s presidential campaign vowed to make America the crypto capital of the world.
“If the rules come in and make it a real thing that you can do business with, you’ll find that the banking system will come in hard on the transactional side of it,” CEO Moynihan said in an interview with CNBC today.
Bank of America stock has rallied some 30% over the past six months.
Trump did not mention crypto in his inaugural speech
Following months of support for Bitcoin and the blockchain technology at large – President Trump went silent on crypto during his inaugural address on January 20th.
Investors were put off by no mention of cryptocurrencies in the speech, resulting in a sell-off in Bitcoin that was seen trading at a record of $109,000 just hours before Trump took office.
Nonetheless, the US President’s recent moves suggest he remains fully committed to making America a crypto superpower as promised.
Donald Trump has picked crypto advocate Paul Atkins to lead the Securities & Exchange Commission and former PayPal chief of operations David Sacks as the “crypto czar” of the White House.
Appointing pro-crypto fintech veterans to key roles signals the new government has big plans for the crypto and blockchain industry.
BofA disagrees with JPMorgan on crypto
BofA chief executive Brian Moynihan’s view on crypto is starkly different from his peer Jamie Dimon who currently heads the largest US bank – JPMorgan Chase & Co.
At one point, Dimon even called Bitcoin a currency for fraudsters and criminals.
In contrast, “if you go down the street here and you go in and buy lunch, if you can pay with Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay etc., this [crypto] would just be another form of payment,” Moynihan said as he spoke with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Note that Bitcoin was currently going for about $103,000 at the time of writing.
Should you buy Bank of America stock today?
According to Brian Moynihan, the Bank of America knows “how to enter the field” and it even has “hundreds of patents on blockchain already.”
Last week, the Wall Street bank reported its financial results for the fourth quarter that topped Street estimates on the back of strength in its investment banking unit.
Wall Street currently sees a more than 10% upside in Bank of America stock to $52.43 on average.
Shares of the multinational pay a healthy dividend yield of 2.23% as well which makes them all the more attractive for income investors.
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