The world’s largest entities have long been interested in cryptocurrencies. They do so even if governments ban them. Despite China’s stance on crypto, the world’s largest bank made significant statements in favor of Bitcoin and Ethereum. They made such comparisons that popular ETF issuer VanEck described it as a love letter.
World’s Largest Bank and Bitcoin (BTC)
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is unmatched in terms of total assets and market value. The state bank, established on January 1, 1984, in Beijing, has over 405,000 employees.
Despite the Chinese government’s ban on Bitcoin mining, we have seen the autonomous region of Hong Kong embrace crypto. Although this seems contradictory, Chinese banks have also experimented with bond issuance on the Ethereum network. So, while China appears to be out of the crypto game, this is not the case in practice.
In its latest report, ICBC wrote that Bitcoin creates scarcity just like Gold. Additionally, it noted that the difficulty of transporting Gold is overcome with Bitcoin, likening it to digital gold and confirming its role as a store of value.
ICBC and Bitcoin (BTC)
We didn’t arrive at a point where the world’s largest bank appreciates Bitcoin overnight. The struggles of giants like BlackRock and Fidelity for a BTC ETF and many other events paved the way for today. Let’s return to our topic. The bank particularly focuses on the rapid growth of a more digital economy while comparing Bitcoin to gold.
The institution made very logical comparisons by defining Bitcoin as gold and Ethereum as oil. As the fuel of the Web3 world, Ethereum, which will provide the blockchain-based infrastructure, already hosts most popular protocols today. More importantly, many rival networks are now striving to become EVM compatible. Most of its competitors are already just layer2 solutions connected to their main network.
VanEck’s head of digital asset research, Matthew Sigel, describes the letter written by the world’s largest bank as a love letter for BTC and ETH. He wrote exactly this and expressed his bank’s admiration for the two major crypto giants in this way.
