BNP Paribas looks at crypto custody services
Important takeaways
- BNP Paribas, one of the largest banking groups in the world, is reportedly considering working with a digital custody company.
- The French bank currently has nearly $13 trillion in assets under custody.
- It joins a long list of institutional firms including Fidelity and Société Générale looking to offer their clients crypto services.
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French banking giant BNP Paribas, with $13 trillion in assets under custody, may be interested in developing crypto custody services for its own clients, a new report says.
The banks are coming
BNP Paribas enters crypto.
The French bank is allegedly is partnering with Metaco to potentially offer crypto custody services to its own clients, making it the latest institutional powerhouse to begin dipping its toes into the cryptocurrency space.
BNP Paribas is the second largest banking group in Europe and the ninth largest in the world. It has nearly $13 trillion in assets under custody.
Metaco is a Swiss company specializing in digital assets for institutional clients; it also offers crypto trading and decentralized finance (DeFi) onboarding services. Other prominent banks, such as Société Générale and Citigroup, have recently come to Metaco for crypto custody agreements.
BNP Paribas is just the latest banking giant to show interest in the crypto space. Société Générale’s digital asset subsidiary, SG-Forge, was recently added to DeFi stablecoin issuer MakerDAO’s vault; the bank will be able to borrow up to $30 million in DAI from the protocol. Another institution, US-regulated Huntingdon Valley Bank, can take out up to 100 million dollars.
Meanwhile, asset management companies have also looked at providing custody services for their clients. Most notably, the American investment company Fidelity has indicated plans to expand its product offering by adding Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies to its digital asset platform. Fidelity had earlier permitted clients to make Bitcoin part of their 401(k) accounts.
These investment and banking companies’ enthusiasm for crypto stands in stark contrast to the approach of regulators and central governing bodies. The European Central Bank declared last week that an eventual Bitcoin ban was likely.
Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
