In a wave of recent government approvals and licensing in the cryptocurrency industry, major banks seem to rush in order to secure their ‘place in the line.’

Two biggest U.S. banks, Bank of America and Chase, take the lead in the race.

According to Bank of America (BoA) statement, on October 30th the company got their hands on another cryptocurrency-related patent. The patent is focused on a more secure storage of private keys. According to the filing, the technology Bank of America will be implementing will focus on reducing the risk of misappropriation of keys due to their internal storage within a public communication network (Internet), which increases their risks of being compromised.

The patent has been added to another pile of similar crypto industry patents the bank has already secured. Same as Chase, Bank of America is trying to save their place in the game, while still banning crypto usage for its own customers. According to BoA CTO, Catherine Bessant, they treat cryptocurrency same as stocks and don’t allow both to be purchased by credit cards. She went further and called Bitcoin “troubling,” emphasizing that the essential foundation of the banking system is a transparency between the sender and the receiver, while cryptocurrency by definition challenges that. However, according to the later statement Bessant made, Bank of America recognizes possible future potential of crypto, and is willing to safeguard bank’s interests in the event the cryptocurrency becomes mainstream.

“While we’ve not found large-scale opportunities, we want to be ahead of it, we want to be prepared,” Bessant said.

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