Deutsche Bank announced that its Digital Asset Custody service has gone live for paying institutional and corporate customers in Europe. The offering provides regulated custody and transfer capabilities for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Circle’s USDC, EURC and EURAU.
Service details
The bank manages wallets and private keys on behalf of clients, employing hardware‑based key protection, multi‑person approvals and separate warm and cold storage. Initially, the service covers custody and transfers, with plans to add tokenised financial instruments later.
Target clients and 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. Deutsche Bank intends to expand the custody offering to Asia and to develop a broader regulated ecosystem for tokenisation and settlement of digital assets.
Regulatory approval
The launch follows a licence from Germany’s financial regulator BaFin under the EU’s Markets in Crypto‑Assets (MiCA) framework, which requires crypto service providers to be authorised. The bank noted that the custody service does not protect clients from asset price volatility, fraud or failures by other market participants.
Related initiatives
Deutsche Bank also signed a memorandum of understanding with Deutsche Asset Management to explore tokenised money‑market funds, crypto exchange‑traded commodities and stablecoins. Additionally, the bank is part of a $270 million consortium of global lenders supporting stablecoin projects.
