Deutsche Börse has acquired a two-thirds stake in Swiss digital asset trading and brokerage firm Crypto Finance. It acquired the stake in the FINMA registered cryptocurrency firm for more than CHF 100 million ($108m).
Crypto Finance’s platform has links to numerous other digital asset venues, which, says Deutsche Börse, means professional and institutional clients don’t need to build their own infrastructure.
“Digital assets will transform the financial industry. There is increasing demand from established financial institutions who are looking to become active in this new asset class and want a trusted partner,” said Thomas Book, Executive Board Member for Trading and Clearing at Deutsche Börse.
Apart from trading, Crypto Finance also has a secure custody solution.
Back in 2019, Deutsche Börse invested in custody solution Custodigit and digital share registry firm daura. At a recent conference, Simon Seiter, Head of Digital Assets at the stock exchange, explained how he sees custody as the glue across different networks.
“An asset that lives on a public chain or another permissioned chain, is only living on this chain. You cannot pull it off (the chain),” he said. But you can manage the custody function.
“If we want managed positions on our systems, even within the current accounting systems, or otherwise in the network we’re building on our own, then we have to manage these positions by connecting to the chains where these assets are actually living through a dedicated custody function.”
Meanwhile, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, owned by Deutsche Börse, hosts multiple centrally cleared Exchange Traded Notes (ETN) linked to cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ethereum and Litecoin.
In April, Deutsche Börse backed a digital asset joint venture 360x alongside Commerzbank that will focus on tokenized art and real estate.
Deutsche Börse is also an early major investor in HQLAᵡ, the blockchain collateral and securities lending business which it takes on the role of trusted third party.
