A statement on the site of one of the major Dutch banks ABN AMRO said that a prototype crypto wallet had been developed by its innovation centre. The news triggered a discussion but soon was deleted.
Update: As it has been clarified by the bank, the web page in question is outdated and refers to a long-time abandoned project. The reason why it suddenly went online is yet unknown. Thank you, G1lius ;)
According to the announcement, the wallet was allegedly ready for the launch, but the bank was examining the demand for the new service in the country before taking a final decision. At the end of the announcement, readers were asked to send their feedback if they supported the idea to have an ABN AMRO bitcoin wallet. However, the button "I am interested" led to a blank page.
In the related discussion on Reddit the user Introshine early noted that the news was likely a fake because it had not been indexed by search engines or published on the website’s news page.
“And I've called branch office, they don't even know what Bitcoin is. Prob. fake. Most likely a joke by an intern or something,” he wrote.
“Just left that bank and the floor manager laughed me right in the face when I mentioned Bitcoin,” reported another forum member PixelPhobiac.
Later the bank deleted the questionable web page and openly disproved the statement on Twitter, promising to sort out the issue “internally”.
@patjanter Het is nog even een raadsel hoe dit bericht naar voren is gekomen. Dit wordt verder intern uitgezocht. Mijn excuus ^Jeremy
— ABN AMRO (@ABNAMRO) September 8, 2016
It is noteworthy that many bitcoin enthusiasts were ready to consider the event of a BTC wallet being launched by ABN AMRO as probable. Overall, expectations of the approaching mainstream adoption of bitcoin are high in the community, especially after the recent news of a bitcoin ATM installed by Deloitte in their Toronto head office.
Holland is considered a “bitconers' paradise”. The country boasts the highest concentration of companies providing goods and services for bitcoins. The Netherlands regularly host bitcoin-related events and feature a number of bitcoin ATMs. However, cryptocurrencies are not regulated by the country’s financial legislation, which makes a sudden bitcoin integration by one of the country's largest banks dubious.
Lyudmila Brus
