Former Bank CTO to Launch UK’s First Crypto Bank

Mark Hipperson, former co-founder and chief technology officer at Starling Bank as well as head of technology for the Barclays group for a decade, has recently announced his plans to establish his first digital currency. or crypto bank, Ziglu.

Positioning itself as a new stage in the evolution of the challenger bank concept, the entirely digital bank account will allow customers to store both fiat and digital currencies in one bank account.

Easy to HODL, exchange and spend

Besides holding various currencies in one account, users will also be able to exchange them at Interbank rates and purchase cryptocurrencies from different exchanges.

Ziglu website also informs, that any currency, including crypto, may be spent in any corner of the globe with a Mastercard debit card.

Currently only for the UK

Hipperson has been the head of Ziglu since September 2018. The organization has applied to the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority for permission to issue electronic money.

Now pre-launch procedures are underway, however, now the bank will work only for UK residents (though plans for expansion do exist). It is stated in its Terms of Service:

“While we intend to expand our offerings to other countries in due course, currently only UK-residents who are at least 18 years of age may use our services and are eligible to apply for a Ziglu account.”

Most important banking innovations brought together

Ziglu is no the first to roll out all-in-one digital account. In August German blockchain-based banking startup Bitwala launched a smartphone banking app with a Bitcoin wallet built in and later added Ethereum support.

It is also not the first cryptocurrency-supported debit card offering. However, the amalgamation of different fiat currencies, crypto and the possibility to spend any currency anywhere with instant conversion at the point of sale is something that traders need, even though now they are unaware of it.