Regulations

Story: Deutsche Bank Prepares for MiCA License to Enter Bitcoin and Ether Custody Market

By Sydney TheCMO

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What Deutsche Bank Actually Plans to Offer. The custody service is squarely aimed at institutional clients.

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Germany's Banks Are Moving Fast on Crypto. Deutsche Bank isn't alone here. Germany's banking sector has been moving into crypto custody…

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Timeline Still Hinges on Approval. October is the target. But regulatory timelines slip.

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Deutsche Bank is waiting on regulators. The German banking giant expects to land its crypto custody license in October under the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets framework — MiCA —…

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The bank first went public with its digital asset custody ambitions back in 2023, announcing a partnership with Taurus to build out the infrastructure.

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Sabih Behzad, head of digital assets at Deutsche Bank, said in June the bank was also looking at the stablecoin issuance market, potentially putting out its own token.

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The custody service is squarely aimed at institutional clients. Big money, basically — the kind that needs secure, regulated infrastructure before it'll touch digital assets at…

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The Taurus partnership is central to all of this. Taurus, a Swiss digital asset infrastructure firm, brings the technical backbone.

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Tokenized financial instruments are the longer game. Banks across Europe have been eyeing tokenization — putting traditional assets like bonds or fund units onto blockchain rails…

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Deutsche Bank isn't alone here. Germany's banking sector has been moving into crypto custody faster than most of its European peers.

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Related: Revolut Hacked: 680 Customers Data Stolen, 10,000 Bitcoin Ransom Demanded

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So Deutsche Bank is kind of the latest in a line, not the pioneer. But it's probably the biggest name yet to make this move, which matters.

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MiCA is a big part of why this is happening now. The regulation, which took full effect July 1, gives banks and crypto firms a standardized rulebook across all EU member states.

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BaFin, Germany's financial regulator, has been relatively active in granting crypto-related authorizations, which probably helps explain why German banks are moving faster than…

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October is the target. But regulatory timelines slip. Deutsche Bank hasn't confirmed the license is guaranteed — it said it expects approval, which isn't the same thing.

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