Deutsche Bank is now holding bitcoin for paying clients, switching on a custody service that lets Europe's institutions store crypto directly inside Germany's largest lender.
The bank first unveiled the plan in mid-September, and the service went live this week. It supports bitcoin and ether alongside the USDC, EURC and EURAU stablecoins, with Deutsche Bank managing wallets and private keys so clients can skip building their own custody infrastructure. The offering targets institutional investors, corporates, governments and wealth managers, not retail customers.
Booked out of Frankfurt and available across Europe through passporting, the service is built to comply with the European Union's MiCA crypto rules. Private keys sit in hardware security modules, with warm and cold storage options, multi-factor authentication and a customizable approval process for transfers. Clients reach it through the bank's Autobahn gateway or its Corporate Bank portal, and the bank plans to expand into Asia next year.
There is a familiar caveat: crypto held this way is not covered by a deposit-guarantee scheme. The launch arrives as bitcoin trades near $73,900, close to its lowest level since August after a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report.