Deutsche Bank plans to launch a regulated digital asset custody service in Europe in 2026 for institutional and corporate clients. The initiative will go live after the necessary regulatory procedures are completed.
German banking group Deutsche Bank said it’s preparing its own infrastructure for the custody of digital assets. Initially, the service will be available to Corporate Bank and Investment Bank clients, allowing them to hold crypto assets and transfer them to third parties.
Deutsche Bank will manage clients’ wallets and private keys. This will eliminate the need for companies and financial institutions to build and maintain their own custody infrastructure.
Initially, Deutsche Bank’s service will support a limited range of digital assets, including:
- Bitcoin (BTC);
- Ethereum (ETH);
- U.S. dollar stablecoin USDC;
- euro stablecoin EURC;
- euro-denominated stablecoin EURAU, launched by AllUnity.
The bank plans to expand the range of available assets based on client demand, internal product approval procedures, risk management requirements, and regulation. The service roadmap also includes support for tokenized financial instruments.
It’s also worth noting that the bank’s plans to launch a custody service for retail clients became public in 2025, while Deutsche Bank applied for a BaFin license to custody digital assets back in 2023.
The service is aimed at corporate clients, asset managers, hedge funds, custodians, brokers, and sovereign entities. Access will be subject to the bank’s established due diligence procedures and risk requirements.
The custody platform will feature several layers of technical and operational safeguards. Deutsche Bank said it will use secure key generation and hardware-based key storage, segregation of duties, procedures requiring transaction approval by multiple employees, and separate environments for hot and cold asset storage.
The service architecture will also include redundant technical infrastructure and controlled backup and recovery mechanisms. Deutsche Bank will use external technology and infrastructure providers for certain components.
For more on how banks and financial institutions store and protect digital assets, read this special report from the CP Media editorial team.
According to Gerald Podobnik, Co-Head of Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank, the bank views digital assets as additional infrastructure that can operate alongside existing markets, not as a replacement for the traditional financial system. Further development of its custody business will depend on client demand, regulation, and the bank’s established risk tolerance.
The actual launch date remains unknown. Deutsche Bank stressed that the start of the service depends on completion of the relevant regulatory process. Regulatory requirements, internal approvals, market conditions, and demand may also affect the service’s geographic availability, the range of supported assets, and the types of transactions offered.
Deutsche Bank continues to expand the range of crypto services available to its clients and explore digital financial instruments. The bank is testing tokenization, providing access to crypto transactions via IBAN, participating in the digital euro pilot, and taking part in an international consortium for stablecoin issuance.
