Boerse Stuttgart Digital, the digital asset division of the Boerse Stuttgart exchange group, has been given the green light by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) to officially offer crypto custody services. The announcement was made on March 30, and it means that the Boerse Stuttgart Group can offer completely regulated services around the trading and storage of digital assets.

Boerse Stuttgart Group CEO Matthias Voelkel declared that the licensing makes Boerse Stuttgart Digital the first “established market participant” to be approved for this kind of service by BaFin. This means that European banks, brokers, asset managers and family offices can integrate the company’s services into their offerings. The exchange group runs trading platforms in Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, and has its own office in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

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Back in December, Bitcoin Group SE – the operator of the German bitcoin.de trading platform – purchased Bankhaus von der Heydt, which already held a crypto custody license. Also, in February, German asset manager DZ Bank established a partnership with Swiss Metaco to offer crypto services, including custody.

Boerse Stuttgart Digital had begun providing custody services through blocknox even before the new crypto custody regulations in Germany came into effect at the start of 2020. Furthermore, the company had launched trading services for German residents in the month prior, and it unveiled a trading app in 2021. Boerse Stuttgart Digital has managed to obtain its final custody license before other major contenders, such as Binance.

Global exchange group Nasdaq revealed plans on March 24 to create a limited-purpose trust company, which would offer crypto custody services under the supervision of the New York Department of Financial Services. This move comes after the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sought to make it more difficult for cryptocurrency exchanges to custody crypto, by expanding rules adopted back in 2009.

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