Prosegur bets on bitcoin custody in the face of a cashless future

In the midst of Labitconf, the largest event on bitcoin in Latin America, CryptoNews spoke with José Ángel Fernández Freire, director of innovation at Prosegur Cash. This is one of the subsidiaries of Prosegur, the Spanish company that provides cash custody to large institutions around the world, among other security services.

Standing next to a yellow Prosegur truck symbolically placed there, Fernández told us. attended the event to present “Prosegur Crypto.”. “One of the initiatives we started two years ago was to think that if we are the custodians of banknote money around the world, similarly we could be the custodians of cryptocurrencies or any tokenized asset,” he explained.

For this reason, they developed a brokerage service and custody cold, hot and physical cryptoasset For institutions and their clients. And he clarified that because the world of cryptocurrencies “has no borders,” they offer this product globally from their operations center in Madrid and another they plan to open in Latin America.

Cash-linked companies “are also working on other business alternatives.”

In the midst of the Labitconf fair, which held its annual edition in the Argentine capital, we asked Fernández: Why Prosegur decided to enter the world of cryptocurrencyas a more traditional financial company? “That’s a very good question,” he answered.

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“While cash poses no problem in Argentina, in Europe, for example, there are serious doubts about its long-term resilience. Although for the moment there are no major declines, in a long-term scenario where cash is not the dominant means of payment, companies like Prosegur Cash are working on other business alternatives that are not directly affected by cash,” he said.

He commented that then, from the innovation team, they considered that getting into other businesses, such as custody of tokenized digital assets, “is a good way to diversify the product portfolio.” Among the cryptoassets they provide, include bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), stable coinsnon-fungible tokens (NFT) Ethereum et al.

Prosegur does not use its clients’ cryptocurrencies.

Fernández pointed out that. at Prosegur “no action is taken on the cryptocurrencies” of its clients.detailing that they do not move them or lend them. It claims to store them until the customer issues a withdrawal order, unlike other companies where “there is a transfer of money flows behind the scenes.”

As reported by CryptoNews, other companies. use Their clients’ cryptocurrencies are being used for various issues, generating cash shortages, a practice that is illegal unless warned in the terms and conditions. This situation is estimated to be behind the explosion of the bankruptcy the large FTX exchange last week, triggering flows of distrust from the market that dragged down the falling prices.

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The entry of traditional financial institutions will drive adoption, projects

Regarding his long-term projections, Fernandez believes that “the game changer is that financial institutions are starting to offer cryptoassets as another product.”as well as stocks and others. In this regard, he noted that it may not be aimed at everyone.

Between 3 percent and 5 percent of the world’s banking-age population owns cryptocurrencies, but what happens if it rises to 15 percent or 20 percent? Well, it would be absolutely different. So even though the big money is in investment funds, we at Prosegur Crypto think that the commercial, retail, and commercial banking world is the one that will change the game.

José Ángel Fernández Freire, Director of Innovation at Prosegur Cash.

In this context, Fernández concluded that the increased adoption of cryptoassets “will depend on whether or not countries develop regulation.” He pointed out that “to avoid problems like those currently plaguing the community, it makes perfect sense for exchanges, brokers, and custodians.” are regulated entitiesas suggested by the MiCa Law Of the European Union.