German asset manager Deka Bank will give its customers access to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in the future. The Swiss company Metaco acts as a partner, according to an official announcement.
With Deka Bank, a heavyweight in the German financial sector is entering the crypto service sector, which is increasingly popular with traditional financial institutions. As of September 30, 2022, the subsidiary of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe had total customer assets of EUR 363 billion and, with more than 5.2 million custody accounts, is one of the largest securities dealers and real estate investment managers on the market of Germany.
Deka Bank relies on Swiss service providers for crypto administration
Payment partner Metaco will support and manage the future safekeeping and administration of DekaBank’s digital assets, according to the official announcement. The orchestra platform should be used for this. Developed in collaboration with Tier 1 banks, this enables the commercial launch of complex bank value propositions regarding digital assets, such as B. custodianship of cryptocurrencies and digital securities, based on institutional security and compliance standards.
The Harmonization platform is supported by a fully configurable governance engine, which aims to allow Deka Bank to define its own policies in a scalable way. Metaco’s technology solutions are said to have already been established by other regulated financial institutions.
BREAKING‼️ | 🇬🇧 German banking giant DekaBank to offer #Bitcoin and crypto to 1.5m retail customers and +500 institutional clients.
DekaBank manages $428 billion in assets!
— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) January 31, 2023
Cryptocurrencies are part of the future
Andreas Sack, Product Owner of Digital Asset Custody at DekaBank, says of the agreement: “Digital assets are a vital part of the future, a radical new way of representing assets, from currencies to real estate. Today we are taking another important step to lay the groundwork for our institutional investors and millions of people in Germany to have access to this transformative opportunity. Metaco is the right partner for DekaBank to create new services that are secure, compliant and future-proof.”
The fact that Deka Bank is now turning to the crypto sector does not come as a complete surprise to market watchers. The company is said to have toyed with the idea of investing in Bitcoin during the 2021 bull market. According to reports, the asset manager wanted to use a German law that would allow up to 20 percent of holdings in Bitcoin and currencies invest in other digital assets in the form of a special fund.
Given Bitcoin & Co’s strong corrections in the 2022 mark market, Deka Bank should probably be relieved not to buy any Bitcoin at the time.
N26 Bank now offers crypto trading in Germany
So Deka Bank is following a trend that has been noticed for a long time. More and more companies from the traditional financial sector are offering products and services related to the crypto market to their customers, taking into account the sharp increase in the number of crypto users worldwide and the increase in the market capitalization of the industry in recent years.
There are several recent examples of this. For example, the digital bank N26 announced on January 17, 2023 the launch of an in-house crypto product. Accordingly, in the coming weeks, eligible customers will gradually be given the opportunity to buy and sell around 200 cryptocurrencies through their app.
In addition to Germany, N26 has launched the customer service in Belgium, Portugal and Ireland. Even before that, at the end of 2022, users in Austria were able to enjoy the new offer.
1). 🧵 Wow @n26 it now gives you the opportunity to buy cryptocurrencies directly in your bank account. I tried it for fun but I wouldn’t do it again.
What I like:
– It brings more awareness and more people may invest in crypto pic.twitter.com/7gUH5KZM0u— 💖💫NatiNat💖💫 (@natinatnat97) January 23, 2023
Customers must go through an examination
The N26 banking experience has always been tailored to our customers’ needs and offers functions that make handling money easier. With N26 Krypto, we’ve created a simple, intuitive product that seamlessly integrates with N26’s fully regulated banking experience, showing account balances, savings and investment portfolios side by side – with cryptocurrencies being the first asset class we aim to offer ,” said Gilles BianRosa, Chief Product Officer at N26.
Customers wishing to use the new offer must check their identity and eligibility to participate with the bank. They can then access N26 Krypto in the N26 app via the ‘Trading’ section in the new ‘Money’ tab. To open a site, all they have to do is select a coin and trade the amount they want.
The trade equivalent is deducted from their bank balance and the coins appear in their crypto portfolio instantly. The same applies if customers decide to close an open position in N26 Krypto: the funds are immediately available in their main account as soon as a position is closed. To make the process especially seamless, both types of transactions can be done as drag and drop.
Like Deka Bank, N26 relies on an external partner with technical expertise. Bitpanda Asset Management GmbH is tasked with trading and storing coins.
Just IN: $10 trillion BlackRock, $2.55 trillion Goldman Sachs and $1.8 trillion BNY Mellon “expanding” #Bitcoin and crypto offerings – Bloomberg.
Probably nothing
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) January 30, 2023
The oldest US bank offers Bitcoin and Ethereum
Even outside of Germany, banks are increasingly relying on crypto services and products like Bitcoin. The oldest major bank in the USA, Bank of New York Mellon, received approval from the domestic financial supervisory authority at the end of 2022 to start storing Bitcoin and Ethereum for its customers.
It is the first US bank to offer its customers digital assets alongside traditional financial services. To determine, the bank referred to a study according to which more than 90 percent of institutional investors are interested in tokenized products. “With more than 20 percent of the world’s invested assets, BNY Mellon has the scale to reinvent financial markets through blockchain technology and digital assets,” said Robin Vince, CEO and president of the financial services firm.
Asset manager Black Rock, considered the world’s number 1 in this business, recently launched a Bitcoin fund. This trend is significant since the banks seem unfazed by recent events such as the collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and the sharp price correction of digital assets over the past year. It seems that the banks still see a lot of potential in cryptocurrencies, which justifies investing in the development of new offers for customers.
Buy a fight out
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