Deutsche Bank has confirmed plans to launch an institutional digital-asset custody service later in 2026 with support for Bitcoin, Ether and selected regulated stablecoins, subject to completion of its regulatory process.
Summary
- Deutsche Bank plans to launch crypto custody for institutional and corporate clients later this year.
- Bitcoin, Ether, USDC, EURC and EURAU are among digital assets planned for initial custody support.
- The service remains subject to regulatory completion, internal approvals, risk management and client onboarding requirements.
- Deutsche Bank will manage client wallets and private keys using warm and cold storage environments.
- Tokenized financial instruments remain on Deutsche Bank’s roadmap as the supported asset range expands gradually.
Deutsche Bank said the platform will let institutional and corporate clients safeguard digital assets and transfer them to third parties while the bank manages their wallets and private keys. Initial support is planned for Bitcoin, Ether, USDC, EURC and EURAU, according to details released on Sept. 16.
The service will initially focus on clients in Germany, Gerald Podobnik, co-head of Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Bank, told Bloomberg. The target group includes asset managers, hedge funds, custodians, brokers, sovereign institutions, corporates and companies working with blockchain technology.
Deutsche Bank crypto custody will launch with five assets
At launch, Deutsche Bank plans to support a selected group of digital assets instead of opening custody to a large number of tokens. Bitcoin and Ether form the crypto component, while USDC, EURC and EURAU are listed among the stablecoins or e-money tokens expected to be supported.
The asset list remains subject to Deutsche Bank’s product approval, risk management and regulatory processes. The bank said future additions will depend on client demand and its internal requirements, meaning the five named assets should not be treated as a fixed long-term list.
EURAU carries a direct German regulatory connection. AllUnity, a joint venture between DWS, Flow Traders and Galaxy, launched the euro-backed token in July 2025 after receiving an electronic-money institution license from BaFin. AllUnity describes EURAU as fully reserved and compliant with MiCA requirements.
USDC and EURC are Circle-issued dollar and euro stablecoins, while Deutsche Bank’s own recent research has examined stablecoins, tokenized deposits and central-bank digital currencies as separate forms of digital money. In a May paper, the bank said financial institutions could eventually help clients navigate between those forms depending on the transaction involved.
Podobnik described digital assets as part of the financial system Deutsche Bank expects to serve through established banking controls. “Digital assets are not a replacement for the traditional financial system but an important complement to it,” he said.
The bank will hold private keys for institutional clients
Deutsche Bank’s custody model places responsibility for wallet and private-key management with the bank, reducing the need for institutional clients to develop their own key-management infrastructure. The service will permit transfers to third parties as well as safekeeping.
Its planned security structure includes hardware-based key protection, secure key generation, segregation of duties and multi-person approval for transactions. Deutsche Bank said separate warm and cold storage environments will form part of the architecture, supported by redundant systems and controlled backup and recovery arrangements.
The bank had already disclosed technical work on the platform before the Sept. 16 announcement. A Deutsche Bank recruitment posting for its Digital Asset Custody platform described infrastructure built for Bitcoin, Ether and regulated stablecoins, with security work covering hardware security modules, cryptographic key management, audit trails and incident response.
On Sept. 9, Deutsche Bank published a separate review of institutional digital-asset custody in which Paul Maley, its global head of Trust and Securities Services, said regulated custodians provide security, governance and post-trade infrastructure needed by financial institutions entering blockchain markets. Deutsche Bank’s digital-asset custody report
The same report identified hardware key protection, key fragmentation, multi-person authorization and offline storage as techniques used by institutional custodians to protect cryptographic assets. Deutsche Bank published the report one week before announcing the planned service.
MiCA process still stands between the plan and launch
Deutsche Bank has not given an exact launch date. Its Sept. 16 announcement says the custody platform is expected to start later this year once the applicable regulatory process has been completed, while the bank cautioned that timing, geographic availability and asset coverage may change.
For EU banks, MiCA provides a specific route to crypto services. The European Securities and Markets Authority states that a credit institution can provide crypto-asset services through the notification process established by Article 60, provided it submits the required information to its competent authority. ESMA’s guidance for credit institutions under MiCA
Required information includes the proposed program of operations, internal controls and procedures dealing with asset segregation, custody, anti-money laundering requirements and information and communications technology systems. ESMA notes that the notification must remain consistent with the institution’s existing banking authorization under national law.
Germany’s Bundesbank states that institutions submitting Article 60 MiCA notifications send them to BaFin and the Bundesbank. BaFin has separately cautioned that an institution cannot begin a crypto service when its required notification remains incomplete. Bundesbank’s MiCA information
Deutsche Bank previously applied to BaFin for regulatory permission related to digital-asset custody in 2023. The current announcement does not state that all remaining regulatory steps have been completed, which is why the bank continues to condition launch timing on the applicable process.
Taurus and Bitpanda have been part of the custody buildout
Deutsche Bank’s current announcement says the platform will use selected external technology and infrastructure companies for defined technical components but does not name those providers. Earlier disclosures offer more detail about companies involved in the bank’s digital-asset work.
In September 2023, Deutsche Bank signed a global agreement with Swiss infrastructure provider Taurus to use its custody and tokenization technology for cryptocurrencies, digital currencies and tokenized assets. Taurus and Deutsche Bank’s original partnership announcement
Deutsche Bank selected Taurus after a due-diligence process as it prepared to offer institutional digital-asset services. The Swiss company continues to identify Deutsche Bank among financial institutions using its technology.
A later Bloomberg report said Deutsche Bank was working with Bitpanda Technology Solutions to build its planned 2026 custody service while continuing its Taurus relationship. Crypto.news reported the planned 2026 launch in July 2025.
Bitpanda has since renamed its institutional operation Bitpanda Enterprise. Its current custody infrastructure supports Bitcoin, Ethereum and major stablecoins and uses hardware security modules, policy-based approvals and audit logs for institutional clients. Deutsche Bank did not identify Bitpanda by name in the Sept. 16 service announcement.
Deutsche Bank already works with Bitpanda in another part of the digital-asset market. Since 2024, the bank has provided German IBAN and real-time payment infrastructure for Bitpanda customers, while serving the company in Austria and Spain for cross-currency banking services. Deutsche Bank and Bitpanda’s existing partnership
Tokenized financial instruments remain on the roadmap
Deutsche Bank says the custody platform may later extend beyond cryptocurrencies and stablecoins to tokenized financial instruments, subject to demand, regulation and its internal approval framework. No date has been announced for adding those instruments.
The bank has spent several years testing tokenization infrastructure. In 2024, it joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Guardian to test an interoperable blockchain platform for tokenized and digital funds. The project included work on servicing digital funds and developing standards for regulated tokenized markets. Deutsche Bank’s Project Guardian work
A June 2024 Deutsche Bank initiative examined interoperability between tokenized assets on public and private blockchains and existing financial infrastructure. The bank said its experiments covered blockchain and tokenization from an asset-servicing perspective.
In its Sept. 9 custody report, Deutsche Bank cited tokenized equities, government bonds, corporate credit and real estate as examples of traditional financial assets that can be represented on blockchains. The bank’s current custody roadmap places such instruments after the initial cryptocurrency and stablecoin offering.