Deutsche Bank prepares crypto custody in Germany and an Asia push in 2027

Deutsche Bank is preparing to launch a crypto custody service in Germany, and in 2027 it wants to take it to Asian financial centers. Gerald Podobnik, co-head of Deutsche Bank's corporate bank, told Reuters about the plan on Friday. If it works, companies will be able to hold Bitcoin and stablecoins at the same bank that runs their ordinary corporate accounts.

What exactly is the bank launching?

It is custody. The bank takes over storage of the private keys for someone else's assets, so the client never deals with wallets or seed phrases. For companies and funds this is often the only acceptable format, since an auditor finds it easier to check a bank than a home-made wallet.

According to the bank's September 16 press release, the service will launch with Bitcoin, Ethereum and a short list of stablecoins, namely Circle's USDC, EURC and the euro-pegged AllUnity EURAU. Deutsche Bank has been building the technical base since September 2023, when it partnered with the infrastructure platform Taurus.

How does the launch look step by step?

To see where the project stands, it is enough to break it into four points.

• Authorization: on Monday the interim MiCA register of the European regulator ESMA showed that Germany's supervisor BaFin had authorized Deutsche Bank.
• A bank spokesperson earlier told Cointelegraph that it expected approval in October, so the schedule is holding so far.
• The first market is Germany, and Asia comes later.
• The bank did not say which Asian centers will go first. It had not replied to Cointelegraph's request by publication time.

So the licensing side is nearly closed, while the geography is still blurry.

Why is the bank doing it now?

Podobnik explained the decision by the fast growth of the digital economy. In his words, hundreds of billions of dollars already sit in stablecoins, and the bank's clients want access to them without crypto-market middlemen.

There is a plain business motive too. The bank wants its corporate business to grow 8% a year through 2028, and the new service is meant to help with that. Custody promises no quick windfall, but it ties big clients in: whoever keeps assets at a bank usually runs payments there as well.

Deutsche Bank is not alone, by the way. Days ago Kraken's parent Payward bought Lithuania's Saldo Bank to get an EU banking license. Traditional banks are moving into crypto, and crypto is moving into banks.

What does it change for the market?

For an ordinary reader who swaps USDT or Bitcoin for hryvnia, nothing changes tomorrow. Custody is infrastructure for big money. But it affects price indirectly: the easier it is for institutions to buy and store bitcoin, the fewer reasons they have to keep it on exchanges.

Our view is simple. When a top-tier German bank asks for a MiCA license to hold Bitcoin and Ethereum, it tells you the topic left the experiment stage long ago. Regulators still sound strict, and business is already building products.

What to expect next?

Two things are worth watching. Will the bank announce a launch date in Germany, and which Asian markets will it name first? For now this is a Reuters report with a direct quote from a senior executive, not a finished service. But the license is already in the register, and the bank has no reason left to wait.