Deutsche Bank applies for digital asset custody license

Mila June 21, 2023

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German banking giant Deutsche Bank has applied for a license with the country’s financial regulator BaFin to expand its revenue streams, as reported by Bloomberg.

David Lynne, who runs the lender’s commercial banking unit, told Bloomberg:

We’re building out our digital assets and custody business. We just put our application into the BaFin for the digital asset license.

The move to the custody of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, follows a similar move by the bank’s investment arm, DWS Group.

DWS Group had expressed a desire to invest in two crypto companies based in Germany. Deutsche Digital Assets, a provider of exchange-traded products for cryptocurrencies, and Tradias, a market maker, were among the companies in talks with DWS Group.

Deutsche Bank itself was interested in the digital asset sector, especially in 2021, when the World Economic Forum report came out, citing the bank, which was building a prototype, Deutsche Bank Digital Asset Custody, “a fully integrated custody platform for institutional clients and their digital assets providing seamless connectivity to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem.”

Interestingly, Deutsche Bank’s application for digital asset custody came just days after the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, filed an application for spot Bitcoin ETF in the United States.

Related: BlackRock’s unit iShares files for spot bitcoin ETF

In light of recent U.S. regulatory action targeting two of the largest existing exchanges (Coinbase and Binance), it wasn’t difficult to raise suspicions about the timing of new product and application launches.

I’m sorry, but after watching, Blackrock, Fidelity, Citadel, Schwab and now Deutsche Bank, all apply for #Bitcoin ETFs, spot exchanges, etc. only a few days after the SEC drops a TRO on Binance and sues Coinbase… how can’t you think this entire past year was a giant inside job…

— Preston Pysh (@PrestonPysh) June 20, 2023

Bitcoin price also reacted to the news, reaching its highest level this month, according to CoinMarketCap. At the time of writing, bitcoin is trading at $28,901, up 11.50% in 7 days.

On June 20, Rekt Capital said that Bitcoin hadn’t broken the downtrend just yet, and despite all the excitement surrounding the asset, traders must wait at least until the end of the week to get if it’s truly bullish:

Trend line being broken out as we speak, so let’s see if the bulls have what it takes to turn this into something special.

Previously worked in the arts, now specializes in covering crypto with an emphasis on DeFi, blockchain and mass adoption. Offers simple and clear writing, always looking for new ways to present information. Major in International Relations, minor in English, in a spare time reads postmodern literature, does yoga and watches movies.

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