BNY Mellon announced that its Digital Asset Custody platform is now available to selected institutional clients in the European Union under the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, following the addition of The Bank of New York Mellon SA/NV to the MiCA register earlier this year.
The registration enables BNY's European banking entity to provide custody, administration, and transfer services for crypto assets to eligible clients in the EU. BNY, one of the world's largest custody banks, reported $62.6 trillion in assets under custody or administration as of the end of June, alongside $2.2 trillion in assets under management.
BNY first launched its digital asset custody platform in 2022. The European expansion integrates that system within MiCA's regulatory framework, which provides banks and crypto companies a common set of rules across participating EU markets, replacing previous country-by-country regulatory variations.
Institutional custody requires more than asset storage. Clients need audit trails, segregation of assets, operational controls, reporting, governance, and a regulated entity responsible for the custody relationship—areas where traditional custodians have decades of experience.
According to BNY, institutional demand extends beyond holding crypto. Banks and broker-dealers are expanding digital asset and stablecoin services, while asset managers and corporate treasurers are increasingly exploring tokenized securities, digital payments, and blockchain-based settlement.
The move increases competitive pressure on crypto-native custodians, which built much of the early institutional market as traditional banks were slower to support digital assets. MiCA now makes it easier for established financial institutions to enter with regulatory clarity and access to existing client bases.
For BNY's European clients, digital assets are increasingly being offered as another asset class within existing infrastructure relationships.
