- Deutsche Bank (DE:DBKGn), Germany’s largest lender, has unveiled plans to offer a crypto custody service.
- The storage and security service will be open only to institutional clients.
- The bank explained that it will liaise with prime brokerages, issuers and exchanges to accomplish crypto custody services for clients.
- Aside from Deutsche Bank, other financial institutions around the world are developing and launching new services related to cryptocurrencies.
Deutsche Bank, a German multinational investment bank, revealed that it has detailed plans to offer cryptocurrency custody (storage and security) services to its clients in a report published by the World Economic Forum in December.
The report indicated that the proposed service will be available only to institutional clients, according to the report. The bank intends to achieve this milestone by partnering with brokerages and top crypto exchanges around the world.
After this announcement, Deutsche Bank joins the league of financial firms looking to diversify their services by incorporating cryptocurrencies.
Crypto Storage and Security for Institutional Clients
Presently, Deutsche’s crypto custody service is still a prototype and no specific date has been announced for an official launch. The report stated that apart from offering crypto custody services, the bank also plans to introduce tokenization and trading on its platform as well as other value-added services like taxation, valuation, service fund administration, lending, and staking.
Deutsche Bank reiterated in the report that the platform will be fully compliant with all pre-existing anti-money laundering and “know your client” (KYC) regulations.
As per the report, Deutsche Bank will aim to develop a fully integrated custody platform for institutional clients who tend to hold significant volumes of cryptocurrencies that require secure storage. The service will provide clients with seamless connectivity to both their assets and the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.
The report explained:
Deutsche Bank will help users to focus on what’s important – their investment decisions. This platform will focus on simplifying the customer experience and design implementation as a means of creating a differentiated product.
On the Flipside
- The Central Bank of Nigeria has banned banks and other financial institutions from dealing with cryptocurrencies.
- Similarly, India’s “Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021” would ban private cryptocurrencies if it is passed into law.
- Balaji Srnivasan, the former Coinbase chief technology officer, has warned that India banning Bitcoin is akin to banning the internet.
- A ban on cryptos, he warned, will redirect trade revenue to other Asian markets, costing the Indian economy trillions of dollars.
Financial Institutions Are Making the Switch (NYSE:SWCH) to Cryptocurrencies
The recent spike in the popularity of cryptocurrencies has drawn a large number of investors to the blossoming industry. Retail investors and institutional investors are all jostling for a piece of the pie.
In December, Singapore-based multinational bank DBS launched a variety of crypto services, including custody, and will allow customers to trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and XRP.
Similarly, Wall Street giants are jumping on the crypto train. Investment bank BNY Mellon (NYSE:BK) has stated its commitment to offering cryptocurrency-based services to clients. And Morgan Stanley’s investment arm with some $150 billion in assets under management, Counterpoint Global, has its sights set on providing crypto-related services to its customers.