German multinational Deutsche Bank is just weeks away from its crypto custody service, according to reports.
The lender — which is Germany’s biggest — also plans to expand the custody platform into Asia next year, according to a Friday Reuters report, which quoted its corporate banking chief.
Top banks worldwide are debuting or planning to debut crypto custody services, with BNY Mellon, State Street, Standard Chartered, U.S. Bank, and Citigroup all committing to direct crypto custody over the past 18 months.
Deutsche Bank first officially announced plans to debut a bitcoin custody service for European corporate and institutional clients in September, with the German multinational at the time saying service was subject to the completion of the applicable regulatory timeline.
Friday’s report added that the service will support custody of major cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin before moving to services that help clients move money into and out of stablecoins.
Gerald Podobnik, co-head of the corporate bank, was quoted by Reuters saying that the financial system will need to “offer tokenized or blockchain solutions.”
A number of top banks have started using the technology that powers bitcoin, the blockchain, for their own products in recent years.
Stablecoins and tokenization in particular have become a hot topic as traditional financial firms aim to accelerate certain services.
Crypto custody is often a starting point for banks moving into the digital asset space. BNY Mellon in 2022 became the first major U.S. bank to offer digital asset custody services.
Banks like Citi and Standard Chartered have this year debuted or announced plans for bitcoin custody around the world.
