One of the largest banking institutions in Germany, the Commerzbank has confirmed that it applied for a local cryptocurrency license earlier this year, marking the first time in the country that a major bank has taken a step denoting interest in the crypto space..
A Commerzbank spokesperson confirmed to local outlet Börsen-Zeitung on April 14 that it “applied for the crypto custody license in the first quarter of 2022.” If approved, it would be authorized to offer exchange services along with the custody and protection of crypto assets..
Commerzbank serves more than 18 million clients and more than 70,000 institutional clients, and cryptocurrency offering will reportedly target its institutional client base.
From January 1, 2020, any company wishing to offer cryptocurrency services in Germany must first apply for approval from the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, also known as BaFin.
Currently, only four companies have the approval, but BaFin says it has more than 25 applications pending. of firms that want to operate crypto custody businesses.
Coinbase Germany was the first to be approved by the regulator in June 2021and Berlin-based fintech firm Upvest was most recently approved for a license in March.
Commerzbank has seen participation in blockchain projects as early as 2018and conducted some of the first transactions on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) security lending platform with other major banks the following year.
More recently, in August 2021, the company partnered to develop blockchain-based digital markets for existing asset classessuch as art and real estate.
Germany introduced series of reforms, regulations and further adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies in 2021.
German investors are also interested in adopting cryptocurrencies. A March report from KuCoin revealed that 44% of Germans are “motivated to invest in crypto” and “37% of German crypto investors have been trading crypto for more than a year”.
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