Two months after unveiling the plan, Deutsche Bank has taken its digital asset custody service live for paying clients. The offering targets institutional and corporate clients in Europe and had been waiting on regulatory approval.

The September plan covered bitcoin and ether plus select stablecoins, including USDC, EURC and AllUnity's EURAU, with tokenized financial instruments to be added later. The bank expected its license under the EU's MiCA framework in October.

Alongside the launch, Deutsche Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with Deutsche Asset Management, the money manager formerly known as DWS, to explore commercial and technical collaboration in digital assets. The bank has also said it wants to expand the service to Asia.

"In the medium term we aim to deliver a fully integrated, regulated ecosystem that supports the custody, tokenisation, and settlement of digital assets," said Paul Maley, global head of trust and securities services.