Crypto Custody

UniCredit

2026-09-11 18:47:07

UniCredit Weighs Crypto Custody as European Banks Expand Digital Asset Services

UniCredit, Italy’s second-largest bank, is considering a broader push into digital assets, including crypto custody, according to a Bloomberg report published Friday and based on people familiar with the matter. The Milan-based lender is said to be choosing a technology provider that could help it build the infrastructure needed to hold digital assets and support buying and selling services. Bloomberg also reported that tokenized investment products, fixed-income securities, stablecoin use and crypto exposure are under review. The reported move comes as banks across Europe step up their crypto offerings. In Spain, BBVA has rolled out bitcoin trading and custody to all customers through its app using in-house custody infrastructure, while Santander’s Openbank has launched its own trading service. Cecabank, which has more than €400 billion under management and supports more than 100 financial institutions, went live with crypto custody in June through a partnership with Bit2Me. In Germany, Deutsche Bank is building custody with Bitpanda’s technology arm, and Taurus and DZ Bank received BaFin approval in January for the meinKrypto platform. UniCredit is also among 37 lenders from 15 European countries working on Qivalis, a company aimed at issuing a euro-denominated stablecoin.

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UniCredit

2026-09-11 11:35:27

UniCredit seeks infrastructure partner for crypto trading, custody and tokenized products

UniCredit is seeking a technology provider to support infrastructure for digital asset trading, custody and access to tokenized investment products, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter. The report said discussions at the Italian bank remain at an early stage and are focused on several areas: crypto custody, brokerage capabilities, tokenized investment products, and stablecoin-based fixed-income securities. Cointelegraph said it had contacted UniCredit for comment on which provider could fill the infrastructure gap. The report places UniCredit alongside other large banks exploring digital asset rails. U.S. Bank, described as America’s fifth-largest commercial bank, completed a live cross-border payment using its proprietary USBDC stablecoin on Wednesday. Standard Chartered launched spot Bitcoin and Ether trading for institutional clients in the United Arab Emirates on Sept. 3, after previously rolling out digital asset custody services in the region in September 2024. In August, Israel’s largest bank, Leumi, partnered with Galaxy Digital to offer Bitcoin, Ether and Solana trading through its investment platform, with the launch expected in early 2027.

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Monument Bank

2026-09-10 15:57:15

Monument Bank delays £250 million tokenized deposit rollout to November

London-based challenger bank Monument Bank has pushed back by several months its plan to tokenize £250 million, or about $330 million, in UK retail bank deposits after failing to find a domestic crypto custodian that both met Financial Conduct Authority, or FCA, standards and could handle zero-knowledge privacy proofs. Founder Mintoo Bhandari said the bank had planned to launch what it described as the world’s first tokenized deposits two months ago on privacy-focused public blockchain Midnight, but now expects to go live for retail clients in November. To meet regulatory requirements, the bank widened its search for a custody partner beyond the UK and ultimately selected a Canadian custodian approved by the FCA. Monument first announced the project in March and said it would target mass-affluent clients with investable assets between £50,000 and £5 million, offering tokenized private equity, structured products and automated Lombard loans. Bhandari also said customer deposits would continue to earn interest, be fully backed by Monument, remain redeemable 1:1 for pounds sterling, and stay protected under the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, or FSCS, up to £120,000 per person or company.

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Copper

2026-09-08 15:23:46

Copper CEO Amar Kuchinad leaves as buyer search enters fourth month

Amar Kuchinad has left Copper, the cryptocurrency custody firm where he had served as chief executive since 2024, according to CoinDesk, which cited two people familiar with the matter. His departure comes while Copper’s effort to find a buyer has moved into a fourth month. The report did not disclose further details on the timing of his exit, the reasons behind the change, or any potential acquirer. Copper is a crypto custody company, and the leadership change lands at a time when the sale process is still ongoing. The information available in the report is limited to Kuchinad’s departure, his tenure as CEO since 2024, and the status of the company’s search for a buyer.

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Taiwan regula

2026-09-04 03:42:16

Red Capital and BitGo on Taiwan’s crypto finance opening after the Virtual Asset Service Act

Taiwan’s legislature passed the Virtual Asset Service Act on June 30, moving the local crypto sector from a registration-based gray zone to a licensing regime. In an interview published by BlockTempo, Red Capital co-founder and TAAS co-founder Denny Yang and BitGo Asia-Pacific lead Ivan outlined how they see Taiwan’s next phase taking shape. The conversation covered a 12-month digital asset forum aimed at financial institutions, BitGo’s decision to treat Taiwan as its first agency market, and the practical bottlenecks facing banks and listed companies. Those bottlenecks include custody pilots, stablecoin accounting treatment, recognition of Bitcoin on corporate balance sheets, and how regulators should focus on control rights rather than locking policy to specific technologies. The two also discussed DAT, or digital asset treasury strategy, and argued that Taiwan should not copy the high-leverage playbook associated with MicroStrategy. Instead, they described a more gradual model in which listed firms keep building their core businesses while allocating a small share of cash positions to Bitcoin over time. In their view, Taiwan’s edge is not domestic market size alone. It is the island’s semiconductor and AI supply chain, and whether stablecoin payments, custody, accounting, and banking can be linked into usable financial infrastructure.

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Binance

2026-09-02 07:19:40

Binance co-founder He Yi: crypto investing no longer a single-token story — it's an industry story

Binance co-founder He Yi has said that investing in crypto can no longer be reduced to buying tokens. In a social-media post, she argued that the tradable universe around Binance has widened to cover the whole industry: miners, exchanges, payment processors and custody firms, in addition to institutions that hold digital assets in their treasury. She described the shift as the true point of transformation: crypto is no longer a story about single tokens, but about the industry as a whole. He Yi's post also cited Binance Research, which finds that the current crypto rally is no longer purely token-driven. Mining companies, exchanges, stablecoin infrastructure, custody infrastructure and digital-asset treasuries (DAT) can now be traded on Binance through instruments such as direct stocks, TradFi perpetual contracts (TradFi-Perps) or bStocks, and can sit side by side with spot and futures products.

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SEC

2026-09-01 17:52:51

SEC proposes overhaul of transfer agent rules as blockchain recordkeeping enters the frame

The US Securities and Exchange Commission has proposed a broad rewrite of transfer agent rules that have seen little substantive change since the late 1970s and early 1980s. The proposal updates requirements around registration, recordkeeping, safeguarding and securities transfers, while adding new standards tied to a market structure that is becoming more digital and automated. The SEC explicitly pointed to blockchain-based recordkeeping, tokenized securities, tokenized fund administration and cross-chain interoperability as developments now pressing against an outdated framework. The agency said existing rules do not adequately address risks tied to cybersecurity, operational resilience, or the safeguarding of securities and investor records. If adopted, transfer agents would face expanded reporting duties and fresh compliance obligations, including rules covering restrictive legends and the use of third-party service providers. The proposal is now open for public comment, with submissions due 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. The move comes as the SEC pursues a wider set of securities rule changes, including proposals on public-company reporting and a separate custody-rule overhaul that could affect how investment advisers and funds hold crypto assets for clients.

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SEC

2026-08-31 17:13:34

SEC and CFTC accelerate crypto rulemaking as U.S. market structure bill stalls

U.S. regulators are moving ahead with crypto rulemaking as legislation on market structure remains stuck during the summer recess. The Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission are each advancing separate initiatives that touch core parts of the digital-asset market, including the definition of swaps and perpetual futures, as well as the SEC’s rewrite of its crypto custody framework for investment advisers and investment companies. A bipartisan group of former officials from both agencies said in a comment letter sponsored by Kalshi that similar risks should receive similar regulatory treatment, and that overlapping rules should not create extra compliance costs. Former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo said liquidity could return to the United States if federal rules are calibrated to actual risk rather than the maximum regulatory burden, adding that each year of delay makes that harder. Kalshi also estimated that offshore perpetual trading volume exceeded $90 trillion in 2025, up from about $28 trillion two years earlier. Separately, the SEC last week sent its custody-rule rewrite to the White House review office, while its "Reg Crypto" proposal has formally entered the Federal Register with public comments due by Oct. 20.

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