Deutsche Bank Eyes 2026 Launch for Institutional Crypto Custody Under MiCA

Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest financial institution, is awaiting regulatory approval to launch institutional digital asset custody services before the end of 2026. The offering will initially support Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and select stablecoins including Circle's USDC, EURC, and AllUnity's EURAU, with tokenized financial instruments expected to follow at a later stage. Heinrich Frömsdorf, a spokesperson for the bank, confirmed that Deutsche Bank expects to receive its custody license in October under the European Union's Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework, which reached full enforcement on July 1.

This move formalizes Deutsche Bank's ambitions in the digital asset space, first revealed in 2023 through a partnership with Swiss infrastructure provider Taurus. The bank subsequently applied for a digital asset custody license in Germany and has steadily expanded its crypto strategy. In June, Sabih Behzad, Deutsche Bank's head of digital assets, indicated the bank was also considering issuing its own stablecoin and entering the broader stablecoin market. As one of the institutions designated by the Financial Stability Board as a Global Systemically Important Bank, Deutsche Bank's entry carries significant weight for institutional crypto adoption across Europe.

Other German financial institutions have already moved into crypto custody. In April 2024, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, Germany's largest federal bank, began offering institutional crypto custody services through a partnership with Austria-based Bitpanda. DZ Bank followed in December 2025, securing authorization from BaFin under MiCA to operate its meinKrypto platform. Together, these developments signal a broader shift among Germany's banking sector toward integrating regulated digital asset services for corporate and institutional clients across the EU.