Deutsche Financial institution Seeks German Crypto License

Deutsche Bank Requests a BaFIN Digital Asset Licence

Germany’s financial market regulator, BaFIN, has received an application for a licence to handle digital assets from Frankfurt-based Deutsche Bank. Should the licence be accepted, it will enable the massive banking organisation to offer custody services for digital assets, such as cryptocurrencies.

David Lynne, the head of Deutsche Bank’s Industrial Banking Unit, said that “we just applied to the Bafin for the licence to use digital assets.”

Since 2020, Deutsche Bank’s corporate division has made indications regarding its intention to enter the cryptocurrency market. Early in 2020, a German bank released a report criticising Bitcoin for being an unreliable value store because of its volatility. Furthermore, the corporate banking segment of Deutsche Bank is seeking to enhance its revenue from fees.

Due primarily to growing interest in the asset class among institutional and retail investors, a number of additional major players in the banking and conventional financial industries have entered the cryptocurrency space:

Institutional clients of Wall Street’s JPMorgan, whose current CEO once derided Bitcoin as “fraud,” can now access a variety of cryptocurrency funds.
With over $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM), BlackRock is the largest asset manager in the world. It has applied to the US securities market regulator for approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).