Two of the biggest names in global banking are now building on Ethereum. Deutsche Bank is preparing a digital asset custody service for institutions, and JPMorgan’s JPM Coin has moved onto Ethereum’s main network.
What Deutsche Bank is launching
Deutsche Bank first announced its custody service on September 16, 2026, then followed up with updates in October 2026. The offering is built for institutional clients, not retail traders.
The bank’s target list includes corporates, asset managers, hedge funds and sovereign institutions.
The initial asset lineup covers ether (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), USDC, EURC and EURAU.
The launch is planned for Germany first, with further expansion across Europe expected afterward. Deutsche Bank aims to go live within weeks, but only once the necessary regulatory approvals land.
JPMorgan takes JPM Coin to mainnet
Over at JPMorgan, the bank’s blockchain unit Kinexys moved JPM Coin (JPMD) to the Ethereum mainnet around October 19, 2026. The change enables on-chain payments and peer-to-peer transfers inside the Ethereum ecosystem.
Before this, JPM Coin ran on Base, an Ethereum Layer 2 network.
JPM Coin also slots in next to JPMorgan’s tokenized money-market funds. The bank launched those in December 2025 and May 2026.
Kinexys has processed more than $4 trillion in transactions, with average daily volume of about $7 billion as of October 2026.
Why the market shrugged
There was no immediate price reaction to ETH following either announcement. Institutional reactions were similarly muted.
The bigger picture for Ethereum
JPMorgan’s steps are widely viewed as building toward heavier use of public blockchains for institutional liquidity and asset tokenization.
Deutsche Bank’s custody service addresses a different piece: many large investors cannot hold crypto at all unless a regulated, trusted custodian is in the picture.
What this means for investors and institutions
For institutional clients, the practical upshot is access. A corporate treasurer or hedge fund that wanted ETH or euro stablecoin exposure through a familiar bank may soon have that option in Germany, pending approvals.
The first thing to watch is whether Deutsche Bank secures its approvals and actually launches within the weeks it has targeted. The second is how quickly the service expands beyond Germany into wider Europe. The third is how much of Kinexys’ activity starts flowing through public Ethereum rather than private or Layer 2 systems.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Kaye Quema. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.