Commerzbank partners with Deutsche Borse’s subsidiary for crypto offerings

Commerzbank has teamed up with Deutsche Borse’s Crypto Finance to offer access to Bitcoin and Ethereum for corporate clients in Germany.

German lender Commerzbank has partnered with Crypto Finance, a Deutsche Börse subsidiary, to offer corporate clients crypto trading and custody services, following its 2023 acquisition of a crypto custody license.

Commerzbank will oversee the custody of crypto assets, with Crypto Finance handling trading services, according to a Sept. 19 release. Gernot Kleckner, Commerzbank’s divisional board member for capital markets, described the offering as a secure opportunity for corporate clients to “seize the opportunities presented by Bitcoin and Ethereum for the first time.”

Commerzbank’s move comes amid rising demand for regulated crypto services in Germany, where Crypto Finance has expanded after securing four licenses from Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority. This is not the first collaboration between Commerzbank and Deutsche Börse in the digital asset space.

In 2021, the two worked together on a blockchain-based marketplace for tokenizing assets like real estate and art, in partnership with fintech firm 360X. At the time, Deutsche Börse CEO Theodor Weimer said the platform would help drive the “tokenization and digitization of assets that are not tradable today.”

The German banking sector has been increasingly active in the crypto space lately. DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest lender, is also preparing to launch a crypto trading pilot for retail customers later this year, allowing cooperative banks to offer direct digital asset trading to customers.