DZ Bank to give its 700 cooperative bank customers access to crypto.
Rival lender Commerzbank earlier announced it would offer trading in cryptocurrencies to German corporate clients.

Germany's DZ Bank is giving its 700 cooperative bank customers access to cryptocurrencies in a tie up with Boerse Stuttgart Digital, the exchange said in a press release on Thursday.

The country's second largest bank will offer its cooperative bank clients cryptocurrency trading and custody services, enabling them to give their retail customers access to digital assets.

The technical and operational set-up has already begin, the exchange said, and the first banks will be connected this year, with a phased roll-out and testing phase for selected retail clients.

"We offer Boerse Stuttgart Digital's proven and fully regulated crypto trading and custody infrastructure to financial institutions across Europe," said Dr Matthias Voelkel, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Group.

The Frankfurt-based bank has $627 billion in assets under management and launched a crypto custody platform in November last year.

DZ Bank is not the only German institution making moves in crypto. Commerzbank earlier said it would offer bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) trading to corporate clients, via a deal with Crypto Finance, the German lender said in a press release on Thursday.

It was reported that DZ Bank was planning to roll out a cryptocurrency trading pilot in February.

Crypto Retail Investors Boerse stuttgart digital banks

Will Canny

Will Canny is an experienced market reporter with a demonstrated history of working in the financial services industry. He's now covering the crypto beat as a finance reporter at CoinDesk. He owns more than $1,000 of SOL.