DekaBank Selects Swiss Crypto Specialist Metaco to Steer Digital Asset Offering

DekaBank, a German lender with 360 billion euros (US$390 billion) in assets under management, joins Societe Generale (GLE) and Citibank (C) in selecting Switzerland's Metaco to develop its digital asset offerings for institutional clients, according to a press release shared with CoinDesk.

Pending regulatory approval, Frankfurt-based DekaBank will utilize the Swiss company's custody tech and orchestration platform Harmonize to handle its crypto custody and asset management operations.

“Digital assets are a critical part of the future, a radical new way for how assets will be represented, from currencies to real estate," said Andreas Sack, DekaBank's product owner for digital assets custody. "Today we make another important step towards laying the foundation for giving our institutional investors and millions of people in Germany access to this transformational opportunity,"

While the crypto market slumped in 2022, institutional interest in the asset class has remained stable. Coinbase's head of institutional research, David Duong, said on CoinDeskTV on Monday that institutions are unperturbed by the recent collapse of crypto exchange FTX and the contagion that followed.

DekaBank is one of Germany's largest provider of securities services. It focuses on custody, capital markets and asset management solutions for the German Saving Banks Finance Group.

For DekaBank's crypto products to move forwards it needs to receive a license from apply from the country’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).