German Bank Launches Digital Assets Unit to Offer Custody Products

German bank solarisBank is jumping into the crypto custody space. 

Through a subsidiary called solaris Digital Assets, the Berlin-based bank will offer a white-labeled custody product, the company recently announced. The financial technology startup received a German banking license in 2016 and has since been offering banking-as-a-service for nonbanks to offer financial products. 

solarisBank will apply for a license to custody crypto in 2020, but some of its partners are already testing the custody product, which can be combined with banking identification and account products, according to the company. 

“We believe that all tradable assets will be tokenized in the future,” said Alexis Hamel, managing director of solaris Digital Assets. “solarisBank had proven that the Banking-as-a-Service model works, and with a full German banking license solarisBank is ideally positioned to use the same model for solaris Digital Assets to provide custody-as-a-service.”

In 2018, the bank launched solarisBank Blockchain Factory, an initiative targeted at blockchain and crypto companies, which includes services like a specialized banking account that blockchain companies can offer customers and an automated escrow account for cryptocurrency marketplaces. In October of that same year, blockchain company Bitwala partnered with solarisBank and became the first company to offer a blockchain bank account.