Deutsche Bank Goes Live With Crypto Custody After a Five-Year Buildup

In brief

• Deutsche Bank’s Digital Asset Custody service is live for paying institutional and corporate clients in Europe, supporting Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, EURC and EURAU.
• The bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Deutsche Asset Management to explore tokenized money market funds, crypto ETCs and stablecoins.
• The launch follows years of preparation and BaFin authorization under MiCA, and the bank is also part of a $270 million stablecoin consortium.

Five years after it first floated the idea, Germany’s largest lender is now holding Bitcoin for clients.

Deutsche Bank said Wednesday that its Digital Asset Custody service has gone live for paying clients, giving institutional and corporate customers in Europe a regulated way to store and transfer Bitcoin, Ethereum and three stablecoins: Circle’s USDC and EURC, plus EURAU.

The bank manages wallets and private keys on clients’ behalf. For now, the service covers custody and transfers, with tokenized financial instruments on its roadmap.

The service is aimed at clients of Deutsche Bank’s corporate and investment banking units, including corporations, asset managers, hedge funds, custodians, brokers and sovereign institutions, according to the bank’s September announcement of the plan.