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German bank uses bitcoin for international money transfers
A German online bank is offering a loan service with a difference: international loans that are transferred using bitcoin.
Founded in 2013, Bitbond is using the cryptocurrency as an alternative to SWIFT international payment network. The company’s founder, Radoslav Albrecht, argues that it’s both considerably cheaper and faster to use bitcoin to exchange funds across borders.
“Traditional money transfers are relatively costly due to currency exchange fees, and can take up to a few days,” Albrecht told Reuters Saturday. “With Bitbond, payments work independently of where customers are. Via internet it is very, very quick and the fees are low.”
The idea of sending out loans in bitcoin may sound speculative, particularly given bitcoin’s near-constant price movements, but in this case, bitcoin itself is not being used as an asset but as a transfer method. Bitbond sends the loan in bitcoin, then the receiving client, often within seconds, has the bitcoin exchanged to their fiat currency of their choice, minimizing exposure to bitcoin price movements.
Although Reuters claimed this is a first — in that bitcoin has never been used as a way of transferring credit in currency internationally — that’s actually not correct. Bitcoin has long been a popular method to make cross-border transfers. But this may be the first time a commercial, registered bank has used the cryptocurrency formally to facilitate loan transfers.
The decision by the bank to use bitcoin to transfer money internationally, currently about $1 million a month, also reflects a changing landscape for the cost of bitcoin transactions.
At the peak of the 2017 speculative bubble which saw bitcoin climb close to $20,000, the cost of bitcoin transactions went through the roof, peaking at $55.16 apiece on Dec. 22, according to Bitinfocharts. As the price of bitcoin declined, so did transaction costs, with Coinbase reporting prices of about $3 as of Feb. 23. Since then, the price has dropped even further, to an average of $1.26 as of today.
At those low prices, presuming they remain low, transferring money internationally using bitcoin as the transfer method becomes highly appealing.
Image: Bitbond
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