Deutsche Bank has submitted an application to German financial regulator, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), for a licence to run a digital asset custody platform, a report from Bloomberg (paywalled) reveals. The platform has been in the making since 2020, when Deutsche Bank announced in a paper published by the World Economic Forum that it aims to provide “seamless connectivity to the broader cryptocurrency ecosystem” for institutional clients.
According to coverage on CoinDesk, the platform will eventually provide taxation, valuation, fund administration, lending, staking and voting services, as well as allow clients to buy and sell digital assets through prime brokers. With this application, Deutsche Bank is following in the footsteps of many traditional finance institutions that have sought to make headway into the digital asset market. Its most recent moves into the digital world include entering talks to acquire two German cryptocurrency firms, Deutsche Digital Assets, and Tradias, as reported on Bloomberg (paywalled).