The following report is by CoinDesk:
Banking giant Deutsche Bank AG has applied for regulatory permission to operate as a crypto custodian in Germany, the bank said Tuesday. The move came just days after asset management giant BlackRock filed with the SEC to create a spot bitcoin ETF.
I can confirm that we applied for the BaFin license for crypto custody.
A Deutsche Bank spokesperson told CoinDesk, referring to Germany’s financial regulator.
The bank said in February 2021 that it was exploring cryptocurrency custody in order to be able to offer “institutional-grade hot/cold storage solution with insurance-grade protection.”
The digital asset custody platform, which Deutsche Bank said at the time would be launched in stages, would eventually allow users to buy and sell digital assets through prime brokers and even provide services such as taxation, valuation services and fund administration, lending, staking and voting, and more.
The bank has been active in the space for a while. Most recently, the bank’s asset management group, DWS, reportedly entered into negotiations to acquire a minority stake in two crypto companies – Deutsche Digital Assets, a provider of exchange-traded products, and trading firm Tradias.
At a conference on Tuesday, David Lynn, who runs Deutsche Bank’s commercial banking unit, said that the bank is now “building out [its] digital asset and custody business,” Bloomberg reported earlier.
In February, DWS CEO Stefan Hoops said that the current low crypto prices could create “interesting opportunities” for the asset management division.
AUTHOR COMMENTARY
The crypto space has been the wild wild west since more of them were introduced within the last several years, but since scams have been plenteous and especially with the collapse of FTX, world governments and regulators are looking to wrangle it in or shutdown the whole space.
While this move will help to add some level of credibility to cryptos, I still think it’ll be a dead end and bad long term investments, as CBDCs are around the corner. This is not financial advice, but if you do decide to “play the game,” then be highly cautious; but I definitely do not think crypto and Bitcoin is any kind of safe haven asset.
For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.
Ecclesiastes 7:12
[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).
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