Financial giant Deutsche Bank eyes crypto custody, tokenization

“We expect to see more and more traditional assets and cash payments eventually come on-chain,” bank executive tells Blockworks

article-image

24K-Production/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Another traditional finance giant is wading into the crypto space.

Deutsche Bank is set to establish digital asset custody and tokenization services via a new partnership with Switzerland-based Taurus — a firm that offers infrastructure to issue, custody and trade crypto, tokenized assets and NFTs. 

“The market has evolved to an extent where we see partnership opportunities key to developing the products and services that our clients are demanding,” Paul Maley, head of Deutsche Bank’s securities services, told Blockworks in an email. 

Deutsche Bank looks to initially offer custody of “selected cryptocurrencies and some stablecoins” for corporate and institutional clients in the German company’s “home market regions,” the executive added — though he did not name specific assets.

On the tokenization front, the firm aims to first tokenize traditional financial securities.

Read more: TradFi, DeFi convergence continues through tokenizing real-world assets

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said last year that the tokenization of securities is “the next generation for markets.” TradFi firms such as JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and Franklin Templeton have been busy in recent years and months exploring the tokenization space.

“We expect to see more and more traditional assets and cash payments eventually come on-chain,” Maley said. “Positioning ourselves for the future is our primary focus and we are working on a select number of projects to develop our capabilities.”

A  journey into the space 

Deutsche Bank participated in Taurus’ $65 million funding round in February — a fundraise led by fellow traditional financial giant Credit Suisse. 

Taurus co-founder Lamine Brahimi told Blockworks at the time that Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank have integrated its tech, or planned to — noting there would be “landmark transactions” in the coming months.  

Teaming up with Taurus also comes after Deutsche Bank applied to Germany’s financial regulator in June to provide custody services for cryptocurrencies.

The latest partnership reflects “a natural extension” of Deutsche Bank initiatives laid out in a December 2020 report by the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies. the company noted in a Thursday news release.

Deutsche Bank said its aim at the time was to create a custody platform for institutional clients that would “introduce a secure connected bridge between digital assets and a customer’s traditional banking services.”  

The bank planned to manage various digital assets and fiat holdings on one platform and allow clients to access those assets via “an institutional-grade hot [or] cold storage solution with insurance-grade protection.”

“We are pleased to implement this global partnership with Deutsche Bank and look forward to supporting the bank in launching digital assets and DLT-based products and services across several booking centers,” Brahimi said in a Thursday statement. 


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

Ethena Labs is leaping from its flagship synthetic dollar, USDe, to a full product suite—USDtb, iUSDe, and the Arbitrum-based Converge Chain—designed to marry crypto-native yields with TradFi-grade compliance. Our analysis shows how expanding into CME, ETF options, and tokenized Treasuries could lift protocol revenue from sub-$500 million in a bear case to several billion dollars if favorable regulation and institutional adoption align.

article-image

Bitcoin is still rising, 11 years after the documentary film The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin

article-image

Arch Labs CEO told Blockworks that the team plans to launch a native token, but declined to give details

article-image

CEO Mike Silagadze tells Blockworks that the US is “open for business” and why its DeFi bank offering is the first of many

article-image

Doing one thing well and leaving everything else out is often what disruptive technologies do best

article-image

Why an analyst is kicking off COIN coverage with “buy” rating