USAA, the US military bank, opens online banking and Bitcoin interface

     USAA is piloting a feature that will allow users to view their Coinbase balances in online and mobile banking portals.

     USAA, a Santa Anne-based bank for military personnel, is testing a feature that will allow users to view their balances on Coinbase, a bitcoin wallet, in their online and mobile banking portals.

     The new feature launched in September with USAA employees and is now being expanded to a select group of USAA members.

     USAA was a notable investor behind Coinbase’s $75 million funding round in January. The large number of mainstream financial players in that round was seen as innovative and marked the first phase of banks ’ interest in bitcoin and blockchain technology.

     USAA announced in May that it had established a research team to explore blockchain technology. At the time, Alex Marquez, USAA’s managing director of research and development, noted that while the company was very interested in developing blockchain technology because it formed such a large community, the company had no plans to use Bitcoin as a currency.

USAA or the United Services Automobile Association started in the 1920s to serve American military personnel who had difficulty getting insurance due to high risk . It serves 11.2 million active or retired military personnel and manages $130 billion in assets.