German Government-Owned LBBW Bank to Initiate Cryptocurrency Custody and Trading Services – Ledger Insights

Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) in Germany recently unveiled its collaboration with cryptocurrency specialist Bitpanda to introduce crypto services for its business clientele, encompassing the provision and exchange of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. A semi-annual pilot for crypto custody is expected to commence in the second part of 2024.

Through this partnership, Bitpanda will supply LBBW with comprehensive “investing-as-a-service” infrastructure solutions.

“The corporate sector is exhibiting a burgeoning interest in digital assets,” asserted Dr. Jürgen Harengel, the Corporate Bank COO of LBBW. “We firmly believe that the integration of crypto assets will become a fundamental component of future business frameworks. Our early establishment of the required technical and regulatory groundwork through this Bitpanda collaboration enables us to optimally accommodate our corporate clients’ diverse crypto endeavors.”

Bitpanda’s client roster includes the Austrian Raiffeisenlandesbank NÖ-Wien and the German digital bank N26.

Numerous prominent German financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank in collaboration with Taurus, Commerzbank which recently obtained a crypto custody license from BaFin, and DZ Bank poised to deliver a crypto solution to its 737 Raiffeisenbank members, have divulged plans to offer crypto custody and trading services. The sector also faces competitive pressure from non-bank entities like Deutsche Börse with its DBDX crypto trading service and Börse Stuttgart that has long provided retail crypto services and institutional custody.

A Glance at LBBW’s Blockchain Endeavors

LBBW is no stranger to distributed ledger technology (DLT), partaking in innovative initiatives over the years. Back in 2017, it participated in a promissory note deal—a €100 million corporate Schuldschein for Daimler. Its major projects include the now-defunct Marco Polo trade finance platform and its recent investment in DekaBank’s SWIAT tokenization initiative. LBBW is also among the first to adopt Deutsche Börse’s D7 for issuing digital securities, which although centralized for its first version, is built on blockchain technology.