Key Takeaways
- • Deutsche Bank is weeks away from launching crypto custody for bitcoin and ether for institutional and corporate clients, according to Gerald Podobnik, co-head of its corporate bank, speaking to Reuters on October 16, 2026, with Frankfurt as the first market.
- • The launch remains conditional on completion of the supervisory procedure and technology sign-off, and no exact date or first client has been named.
- • Day-one scope covers bitcoin, ether, and the e-money tokens USDC, EURC and EURAU, with stablecoin transfers, tokenised deposits and digital securities to follow; retail clients are excluded.
- • Crypto assets are not covered by deposit insurance, with protection instead coming from segregation of holdings and the right of separation in insolvency.
- • Bitcoin traded at $81,437 on Saturday morning, down 0.62% over 24 hours, while US spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a net outflow of $82.39 million on Friday, October 16, according to SoSoValue.
Summary
Deutsche Bank is weeks away from holding bitcoin and ether in custody for institutional clients, according to Gerald Podobnik, co-head of its corporate banking business, who said in a Reuters interview on October 16, 2026 that the launch was only weeks away. He gave no exact date and named no first client. The bank had announced the service on September 16, 2026, when it spoke of a launch still in the current year, subject to completion of the relevant supervisory procedure. The service goes live only once that procedure is complete and the technology has been signed off.
The initial offering covers five assets: bitcoin, ether, and the three e-money tokens USDC, EURC and EURAU. Under the European markets in crypto-assets regulation, an e-money token tracks exactly one official currency and must be fully backed. EURAU is a euro token in which Deutsche Bank holds a stake through its fund subsidiary. Access runs through the bank's existing Autobahn and Corporate Bank portals rather than a standalone app. The target group is institutional and corporate clients, including asset managers, investors, multinational companies, and state or state-linked bodies. Germany is the first market, with settlement in Frankfurt, and Podobnik indicated expansion to Asian financial centres in 2027 without naming a location.
The bank manages wallets and private keys on behalf of clients, using hardware security modules, warm and cold storage, multi-person transfer approvals and backup procedures. The bank states that crypto assets are not covered by deposit insurance, unlike current account balances protected up to €100,000 per client and institution. Industry observers cited by the publication indicate the route is a notification to the home supervisor rather than a fresh crypto-asset service provider application, which the publication says explains the shift from months to weeks. Deutsche Bank applied to BaFin for a crypto custody licence in 2023 and signed a global contract with Swiss infrastructure provider Taurus that September.
For retail investors in Germany, the launch changes nothing immediately, as buying still runs through exchanges, brokers, or partner-enabled banks. The publication notes that the service could lower a hurdle for asset managers and companies that have previously blocked crypto allocations in investment committees, though inflows remain undocumented. On the market side, spot bitcoin ETFs lost a net $82.39 million on Friday, with BlackRock's fund accounting for $71.78 million of outflows and Fidelity $10.61 million, according to SoSoValue. Bitcoin's 24-hour range was $80,761 to $82,816, and its all-time high is $126,080.
The initial offering covers five assets: bitcoin, ether, and the three e-money tokens USDC, EURC and EURAU. Under the European markets in crypto-assets regulation, an e-money token tracks exactly one official currency and must be fully backed. EURAU is a euro token in which Deutsche Bank holds a stake through its fund subsidiary. Access runs through the bank's existing Autobahn and Corporate Bank portals rather than a standalone app. The target group is institutional and corporate clients, including asset managers, investors, multinational companies, and state or state-linked bodies. Germany is the first market, with settlement in Frankfurt, and Podobnik indicated expansion to Asian financial centres in 2027 without naming a location.
The bank manages wallets and private keys on behalf of clients, using hardware security modules, warm and cold storage, multi-person transfer approvals and backup procedures. The bank states that crypto assets are not covered by deposit insurance, unlike current account balances protected up to €100,000 per client and institution. Industry observers cited by the publication indicate the route is a notification to the home supervisor rather than a fresh crypto-asset service provider application, which the publication says explains the shift from months to weeks. Deutsche Bank applied to BaFin for a crypto custody licence in 2023 and signed a global contract with Swiss infrastructure provider Taurus that September.
For retail investors in Germany, the launch changes nothing immediately, as buying still runs through exchanges, brokers, or partner-enabled banks. The publication notes that the service could lower a hurdle for asset managers and companies that have previously blocked crypto allocations in investment committees, though inflows remain undocumented. On the market side, spot bitcoin ETFs lost a net $82.39 million on Friday, with BlackRock's fund accounting for $71.78 million of outflows and Fidelity $10.61 million, according to SoSoValue. Bitcoin's 24-hour range was $80,761 to $82,816, and its all-time high is $126,080.
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