Bitcoin & Co: coveted crypto licenses

Commerzbank was the first major German bank to apply for a license from the financial regulator Bafin to be able to store cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. A spokesman told uro on Sunday. Deutsche Bank also confirmed similar precautions. A spokesman for this newspaper explained that they have been working on “custody for cryptocurrencies” for 18 months.

According to industry experts, the banks primarily want to prevent losing younger customers to fintechs that already offer this service by offering a corresponding range of services. However, the two bank spokesmen said in unison that the offers should initially be aimed at institutional customers.

According to the Commerzbank spokesman, the bank wants to help shape emerging “digital ecosystems” in the “digital assets” area. This is done primarily “with regard to custody and trading in non-physical assets”. To this end, the bank entered into a cooperation with Deutsche Börse and the fintech 360x in spring 2021. In addition, the bank is also pursuing its own digital asset strategy and is also planning its own offerings for customers in the coming years.

Coinbase is already licensed

According to the spokesman, the focus at Deutsche Bank is on giving international investors, in particular funds, pension funds, insurance companies and the like, access to crypto assets. For example, if private investors invest in funds with crypto assets, the relevant fund companies could have these assets held by Deutsche Bank, the spokesman added. However, details about these new services will only be published “in due course”.

The US crypto exchange Coinbase already has a Bafin license for the safekeeping and trading of digital currencies in Germany. According to information from the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung”, the bank Hauck Aufhuser Lampe has now also received a corresponding license via the acquired fintech Kapilendo and the Munich fintech Tangany. According to the newspaper, the Bafin currently has 25 crypto applications for approval.

In any case, such a license should offer customers the guarantee that their crypto deposits are kept safe according to the standards of the supervisors. In the past, there have always been incidents, some spectacular, in which crypto accounts have been emptied.

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