France-based BNP Paribas, the second largest global bank in Europe with $13 trillion (roughly Rs. 10,40,19,281 crore) in assets under custody, has become the latest banking giant to enter the crypto custody business. As per a report, the French bank is partnering up with a Swiss company specialising in digital asset custody for institutional clients, Metaco, to potentially offer crypto custody services to its own clients, making it the latest institutional powerhouse to start dipping its toes into the cryptocurrency space.
As highlighted by a CoinDesk report, the Swiss solutions providers has penned a host of deals with multiple banks to develop digital asset custody platforms. Citigroup partnered with Metaco to pilot and develop its digital asset custody platform last month. That deal has the bank exploring custody capabilities for tokenised securities, like blockchain-based stocks and bonds.
More recently, French lender Societe Generale partnered with Metaco to work on its digital asset subsidiary, which will also primarily focus on security tokens.
With Metaco’s service, Societe Generaale and Citi are leveraging their infrastructure to support their vision of bridging traditional and digital finance, focused on security tokens, like tokenised versions of stocks or other financial instruments, with less of an emphasis on pure cryptocurrencies.
In the past, the likes of Spanish major bank BBVA, London-based Zodia Custody, Singapore multinational bank DBS, and UnionBank Philippines also partnered with Metaco to enable digital assets custody services to their clients.
Meanwhile asset management companies have also been looking into providing custody services for their clients. Most notably, US investment firm Fidelity has indicated plans to expand its product offering by adding Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies to their digital asset platform. Fidelity had previously allowed clients to make Bitcoin part of their 401(k) accounts.
