Puerto Rico based San Juan Mercantile Bank & Trust International (SJMBT) has been set up by by San Juan Mercantile Exchange, a membership based trading platform. The move was in a quest to expand the services of the exchange to cater for institutional investors that are seeking avenues to enter the crypto market.

The new cryptocurrency trading institution set to provide custody and settlement services for cryptocurrencies and fiat traded on the exchange platform.

The new crypto bank which was licensed as an International Financial Entity (IFE) last month by the Puerto Rico’s Office of The Commissioner of Financial Institution (OCIF) has received its first client and corresponding deposits.

Speaking on the new approval and launch of the crypto bank, the president and chief operating officer of SJMX said,

“Institutional market participants in the digital asset space now have access to a licensed, fully regulated and operational banking partner that provides a secure environment for the matching and settlement of digital asset trades.”

SJMBT is a subsidiary of Mercantile Global Holding (MGH), the owners of San Juan Mercantile Exchange (SJMX), an electronic exchange for institutional digital assets.

However, the bank is set to secure clients’ deposits at banks with valid partnerships but at the moment the company still lacks insurance by the U.S Federal Deposits Insurance Corporation (FDIC). In a similar manner, digital assets deposited by customers will be held secured with custodians of digital assets with the company’s approval.

A lot is seen to be happening in the crypto space lately as the market has shown some positive movements. It is likely that these are plans that have been in the cooler pending when the businesses feel is the right time to launch in the quest to maximize opportunities.

Last week, the Hong Kong based BC Group lauched its own custodial service being the very first insured custody solution by an Asian company.