Deutsche Bank plans to expand cryptocurrency custody into Asian financial centers in 2027 as it prepares to launch the service in Germany, extending an institutional digital-asset strategy beyond its initial European market.
Gerald Podobnik, co-head of the bank’s Corporate Bank, outlined the timetable in a Reuters interview reported Friday. The German launch was described as weeks away. The plan does not establish that the service is already operating in Asia, and the initial Asian markets have not been named in the reporting reviewed.
The timetable builds on the bank’s September 16 announcement of a custody product for institutional and corporate clients. That earlier statement described a launch this year, subject to the applicable regulatory process; Friday’s interview supplied a more immediate German timetable and the proposed Asian expansion.
The bank would hold the keys
The planned service lets eligible clients hold selected digital assets and transfer them to third parties. Deutsche Bank would manage the wallets and private keys, reducing the need for customers to operate their own custody systems.
That makes it a different arrangement from self-custody, where the owner manages the keys and recovery process. In institutional custody, clients rely on the provider’s access controls, approvals and operational arrangements as well as its ability to process authorized instructions.
For an asset manager or corporate treasury, the central question is not simply whether a bank recognizes Bitcoin. It is whether digital-asset holdings can be administered through a service that fits the organization’s governance, reporting and transfer requirements.
A limited initial asset range
In September, Deutsche Bank identified Bitcoin, Ether and selected stablecoins, including USDC, EURC and EURAU, as the intended initial assets. It also placed tokenized financial instruments on its roadmap. That list describes the announced product scope; it is not confirmation that every asset is available to every client today.
Custody also needs to be distinguished from the other services a bank might build around those assets. Holding tokens does not by itself mean issuing a stablecoin, offering a tokenized deposit, extending credit against a balance or executing a securities transaction.
Each additional activity creates its own operational and legal questions. A custody expansion can make such services easier to connect later, but their availability cannot be inferred from the safekeeping plan alone.
Asia remains a regional plan
The Asian ambition leaves important details open. A regional target does not identify a licensing jurisdiction, a first customer or a date on which transfers can begin. Different financial centers can impose different conditions on the entities and assets involved.
Germany’s progress therefore should not be treated as automatic authorization elsewhere. Confirmation of local permissions and an actual client launch would mark a further stage beyond the timetable described in the interview.
For now, the development is a more concrete expansion plan from a major bank, rather than a completed international rollout. The next evidence to watch is the German service going live and the bank naming where, and under what arrangements, it intends to enter Asia.