8M
...
Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW), Germany’s largest federal bank, has announced plans to offer cryptocurrency custody services in collaboration with Bitpanda exchange. This partnership aims to cater to institutional and corporate clients, with the services expected to commence in the latter half of 2024, as per a joint statement released on Monday. Jürgen Harengel, managing director of corporate banking at LBBW, cited increasing demand from corporate customers for digital assets as a driving force behind this initiative.
The move underscores a growing trend among German banks and asset managers, who are actively venturing into the crypto space by offering custodial services and developing products for this asset class. Deutsche Bank is also in the fray, working on its digital-asset custody service, while its DWS unit is part of a consortium developing a euro-denominated stablecoin. With assets totaling around €333 billion ($355 billion) and backing from entities like the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and the city of Stuttgart, LBBW’s foray into cryptocurrency custody signifies a significant step in the mainstream adoption of digital assets within Germany’s financial sector.