Australian Online Broker Adds Crypto To Its Services

The Australian Securities Exchange-listed (ASX) brand — SafeWealth is planning to add crypto to its platform. The firm is one of the country’s biggest non-bank online brokers. Right now, it has just about 95,000 investors on its roster.

The Australian Financial Review says this will be the first of its kind to do so in the nation. In detail, SafeWealth is in talks with crypto exchanges on how to add the service onto its platform.

At the moment, about $4.4 billion (US Dollars) of total value in securities is already held by the firm. Hence, it is looking forward to offering crypto trading as well.

So far, the firm says it will add up to 10 different cryptos onto its platform. These will include Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). These assets will be held in a third-party wallet.

Moreover, the firm says it will charge a flat % fee for every crypto trade that takes place on behalf of its clients. This will be similar to the equities made from traditional trades.

Also, the report says that 2/3 of the brand’s customers already either hold or plan to invest in cryptos. Some are already traders and investors of crypto. This is a sign that demand for crypto-related services has gone up in the country.

SafeWealth CEO, Cath Whitaker says that by adding crypto trading along with trading local and US-based shares, they will be the first to do so in Australia. Presently, the ASX uses its Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS) to fulfill this deed.

In addition, she says that moving between popular investment options usually needs access to multiple trading platforms. Investors need this to move money multiple times. Thus, the firm is hoping to replace its CHESS system with the prevailing distributed ledger technology variant.

With this, SafeWealth can boost speed when it comes to its settlements and transactions. Although, even with the latest technology in place, they cannot avoid the occasional delays. Likewise, they can also not provide a decided given date.