Casey Wagner

German lender DekaBank has tapped Metaco to head up its digital asset operations as the financial player looks to expand into institutional crypto offerings.&nbsp;



DekaBank, which currently manages more than 360 billion euros ($390.9 billion) in assets, will use Swiss services provider Metaco for custody and capital market solutions, the bank announced Tuesday. The partnership is pending regulatory approval.&nbsp;



Metaco, founded in 2014, specializes in institutional cryptocurrency custody and trading, as well as decentralized finance (DeFi) services.&nbsp;



“Digital assets are a critical part of the future, a radical new way for how assets will be represented, from currencies to real estate,” Andreas Sack, product owner of digital assets custody at DekaBank, said in a <a href="https://www.metaco.com/press_releases/dekabank-technology-partnership-metaco/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>. 



“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.”



DekaBank, founded in 1918, is the securities provider of Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, the largest financial services group in Europe.



Metaco has experience with the European regulatory system, DekaBank noted in Tuesday’s press release. Metaco “established itself as a leading technology provider to financial institutions and corporations in the digital asset ecosystem,” the release read.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The Metaco partnership is not Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe’s first foray into crypto. In December 2021, the banking group confirmed it was working on a pilot project to allow customers to access bitcoin and ether directly through their existing accounts.&nbsp;



DekaBank’s announcement comes shortly after Metaco revealed it would be partnering with Togg, a Turkish car company, on its mobility ecosystem built on the Avalanche blockchain.&nbsp;



In any case, DekaBank’s native Germany has been known as one of the more friendly countries when it comes to crypto regulation, Renate Prinz, partner at McDermott Will &amp; Emery LLP, wrote in a November 2022 <a href="https://www.finextra.com/the-long-read/534/understanding-the-regulatory-landscape-for-crypto-assets-in-germany-and-the-eu" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog</a>. 



The country has some of the clearest guidelines on licensing requirements and token classification, Prinz said, allowing for investors and businesses to more confidently enter the space.



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Germany

105-Year-Old German Bank Readies To Offer Crypto Services

Sam Reynolds

<div id="highlights-block_615c7ae2b9695" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Metaco says demand for institutional grade digital asset infrastructure in Singapore and the rest of Asia is the reason its expanding in the continent</li>
 <li>Singapore has been at the forefront of digital asset adoption led by DBS Bank as well as its sovereign wealth fund Temasek</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Digital assets infrastructure provider Metaco announced today that it has opened an Asia-Pacific office in Singapore, citing demand for digital assets in the City and the region as a whole.&nbsp;



Switzerland-based Metaco has played a role in digital bond issuance in Europe and Switzerland during the last year. At the same time, Singapore has been at the forefront of digital bond issuance with Temasek portfolio company Azalea Investment Management issuing its latest Temasek private-equity-backed bonds, Astrea VI, in tokenized format on the blockchain and local digital asset exchange iSTOX also issuing tokenized bonds.&nbsp;



“The decision to choose Singapore as the location for our APAC base made best sense for our business and strategic objectives. Singapore is one of the jurisdictions in which we are seeing the highest levels of demand for digital asset software and infrastructure by financial institutions, driven in part by the progressive regulatory framework towards digital assets by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS),” Andre Israel, Chief Operating Officer at Metaco, told Blockworks in an email.&nbsp;



Israel also said that the country’s talent pool and prior experience with digital assets is another reason the company chose to establish its regional headquarters in Singapore.&nbsp;



Perhaps the most notable example of institutional acceptance of digital assets in Singapore comes via DBS, which is partially owned by the Singaporean government. <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/can-dbs-sto-revive-a-stagnant-offering-class/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Earlier this year</a>, the bank announced that it was opening up a Security Token Offering issuance desk. During its last <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/singapores-dbs-reports-100-million-in-digital-assets-in-custody/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">earnings</a> announcement, the bank reported that it has over $100 million in digital assets custodied via its institutional-focused digital assets exchange, and it will soon begin to offer digital products via its traditional brokerage DBS Vickers.



In a previous interview with Blockworks, Seamus Donoghue, Vice President of Metaco, called Ethereum the new “rails for the new capital markets” believing it will play a key role in the future issuance of government debt — a “growth industry” according to Donoghue.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Singapore vs. Hong Kong&nbsp;</h3>



While Singapore might have had competition from Hong Kong as a digital assets hub, the two are drifting further apart, with Singapore taking the lead given its friendly regulatory environment. Industry stakeholders that Blockworks has spoken to <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/hong-kongs-digital-assets-double-standard/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">have complained</a> about Hong Kong’s digital asset double standard, with layers of bureaucracy and strict anti-money laundering laws that stop most firms from even being able to open a bank account.&nbsp;



“Banking still treats crypto as something that they really don’t want to touch in Hong Kong over money laundering concerns,” Vincent Chok, CEO of First Digital Trust, a registered public trust company headquartered in Hong Kong told Blockworks in an earlier interview. “There’s a definite bias going on.”



It’s also been said that Hong Kong’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/custodian-rules-are-missing-link-for-hong-kongs-digital-assets-industry/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">lack of proper digital asset custodian rules</a> — so far it has only issued guidance and not a comprehensive legal framework like Singapore — is inhibiting the territory’s growth as a digital assets superpower.&nbsp;



But Metaco’s Israel said that Hong Kong is still a key global financial center and on the roadmap as the company “continues to grow at a significant pace”. It’s just not going to be its Asia-Pacific headquarters.



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