Germany’s largest bank, Deutsche Bank AG is working on offering crypto custody services, a WEF report says. The report details the plans of the bank to become a custodial services provider for institutional investors because of the growing interest from this group of investors. The influx is due to the decreasing risk of investing in digital assets due to the maturity of the space.
Tokenization is expected to enter the mainstream space over the next 10 years and mainstream financial institutions need to brace for the changes to come. Deutsche Bank plans to enter the space, first by providing digital asset custody for institutional investors, backed by insurance, enabling customers to buy and sell digital assets safely as well as issuance and trading capabilities.
To ensure that customers enjoy quality services and safely, “The platform will be embedded with a full suite of regulated banking services, including KYC/AML, compliance, settlement and more. Intuitive UX and CX will be crucial. Deutsche Bank will help users to focus on what’s important – their investment decisions.”
Mainstream financial institutions have shown interest in the cryptocurrency industry since 2020. Efforts to enter the space have been intensified this year with many of such institutions integrating digital assets in their suite of financial services, Deutsche bank being just one of them.
The bank intends to service clients from all over the world. First, custody fees will be charged and eventually, tokenization and trading fees when these services are added to the platform. The custody services will include both hot and cold institutional-grade wallets, with guaranteed insurance of funds.
Apart from financial institutions, many other companies have entered the cryptocurrency space, especially investing in Bitcoin. The latest is Tesla, a company whose CEO is one of the richest people in the world. The company bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, an action that is said to have boosted the confidence of other institutions concerning the digital asset.
Many other companies including Twitter are exploring either investing in the asset, accepting it as a payment method, or paying salaries with it.
