DZ Bank, the second-largest bank in Germany, has announced that it has chosen Metaco to provide its digital asset custody solutions. This move marks the fourth partnership between Metaco and major financial institutions in the last eight months.
This collaboration marks a significant milestone in Germany’s move towards digital asset adoption and shows the potential of digital asset investments. It also indicates that digital asset custody services are rapidly gaining traction in the European market.
DZ Bank Enters the Digital Asset Arena With Revolutionary Collaboration
This agreement follows similar agreements by Societe Generale, Citibank, and DekaBank Lusanne-based Metaco to create digital asset solutions for institutional customers. DZ will leverage Metaco’s Harmonize platform to provide crypto services to its institutional customers.
Nils Christopeit, the lead for digital custody design solutions at DZ, stated:
“Through the adoption of this technical platform, DZ expects a robust and successful partnership. Thus, it can develop an attractive solution for its customers that meets the requirements for its digital currencies and decentralized finance investments.”
The ongoing enthusiasm towards cryptocurrencies among traditional financial institutions in Germany persists, as evidenced by DZ’s ambition to secure digital assets, even in the face of the bear market of 2022 and the turbulence in the crypto market, such as the FTX crash.
Metaco Keeps Attracting Key Institutional Investors
The recent exploit of Metaco is noteworthy in the digital asset industry. Its move has attracted several investors to key into the project. In July 2022, the company announced it raised $17M in Series A funding from prominent investors.
Giesecke+Devrient, a German security technology company, took the lead in the round of funding, with contributions from Standard Chartered Bank’s SC Ventures, Zurcher Kantonalbank, and Investiere. Swiss Post, Swisscom, Avaloq, and SICPA, all existing investors, supported Series A.
METACO will use the newly-acquired funds to develop its technology further and expand its crypto custody, trading, and tokenization services to the US, South East Asia, and Western Europe.
METACO affirmed that it aims to support central banks in their digital currency projects. Giesecke+Devrient and SICPA, investors in METACO, offer security solutions to these banks already.
Assaf Shamia, Investment Director at Giesecke+Devrient, noted that tokenization is becoming increasingly popular among regulators and central banks, with digital currencies being the main innovation. He added that tokenized assets require a secure, dependable, scalable approach to securing private keys.
After examining the market, they identified METACO as the leading player in the field. As the market for digital asset custody continues to expand, Metaco’s solutions will become increasingly important for financial institutions worldwide.