New reports out this week suggest that Ripple XRP, among other cryptocurrencies is about to see an exciting new wave of adoption through the world’s first ‘bank-owned’ cryptocurrency exchange. The cryptocurrencies in question include; XRP, Bitcoin and Ethereum. The bank in question, SBI Holdings (Japan) have created a side-project known as VCTRADE, a cryptocurrency that is owned by and backed by a traditional banking firm, making it the world’s first bank-owned crypto exchange. VCTRADE was initially established to provide retail level investment options to normal investors, people who wanted to buy cryptocurrencies for personal use. Now however according to recent reports, VCTRADE will fully open its doors to institutional investors, allowing huge sums of money to flow into the markets and in turn, encouraging institutional investment into Bitcoin, XRP and Ethereum. According to dailyhodl.com: “The first bank-owned crypto exchange plans to expand its services from retail traders to institutional investors. Japan-based SBI Holdings initially geared its exchange VCTRADE towards retail traders, allowing people to deal in four cryptocurrencies, including XRP, Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash and Ether. This week, however, an SBIVC spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the exchange plans to expand its focus.” The spokesperson from SBI Holdings has said: “SBIVC currently offers services only for retail customers. After AML/CFT and custody solutions that we are planning to implement are finalized, we would like to move forward and start providing services to institutional investors. Prioritizing customer asset protection, the SBI Group will make use of its synergies between current businesses, such as securities and FX, to acquire new customers.” By opening their doors to institutional investors, the type of customer that VCTRADE will attract really does open up. Institutional investors are looking to make long term investments with huge sums of money. The reasons they want to stash their money in other assets can be debated, however the facts are pretty clear - when huge waves of money come into the markets, buying increases and so does the price of our investments. If VCTRADE start getting a number of big institutions on board, they will start to do better than their rivals. This causes a competition that encourages more exchanges to do the same and thus, more institutions to start to invest, causing a snowball effect, or even a bull run.