Commerzbank, one of Germany’s largest banks, has teamed up with Crypto Finance, a subsidiary of Deutsche Börse, to provide secure services for Bitcoin and Ethereum to its corporate clients. Through this collaboration, both parties want to improve digital asset trade and storage services via selected customers in Germany.
This partnership, which was made public on Thursday, indicates a concerted push toward expanding European institutional cryptocurrency services. Commerzbank focuses mainly on corporate, retail, and investment banking, with a labor force of more than 48000 employees, catering to nearly 11 million private customers and over 70,000 corporate customers worldwide.
Initially, the company will offer only bitcoin and ether. Its target audience will be Commerzbank’s corporate clients in Germany. This partnership entails that Commerzbank will assume the responsibility of storing the digital assets while Crypto Finance will focus on the safe trading of the assets. Such a setup means that clients need not sacrifice a regulated and secure means of preserving and trading in crypto assets.
Crypto Finance Enters Germany, Secures Four Licenses
In November 2023, Commerzbank emerged as the first universal bank of Germany to be granted a crypto custody license. This makes it possible for the bank to provide a full list of services associated with digital assets while at the same time ensuring compliance in the provision of crypto custody based on blockchain. Commerzbank is following the digitalization course and was recently awarded for its efforts for corporate clients in Germany.
Crypto Finance, founded in Switzerland and regulated by FINMA, has been offering safe trading and storage services for institutional investors since 2017. It recently entered Germany, where it already has four licenses from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and plans to become available to all institutions. Such collaboration additionally cements Crypto Finance’s role in the European cryptocurrency market.
Gernot Kleckner from Commerzbank said that through this strategic cooperation, the corporate clients will be ready to invest in Bitcoin and Ether securely. Stijn Vander Straeten, the CEO of Crypto Finance, highlighted that it is a significant step that will allow even more companies in Germany to get regulated crypto services and meet the EU institutions’ demand for institutional-grade crypto solutions.
