BNP Paribas Looking Into Crypto Custody Services

French banking giant BNP Paribas, with $13 trillion in assets under custody, could be interested in developing crypto custody services for its own clients, a new report says.

The Banks Are Coming

BNP Paribas is getting into crypto.

The French bank is reportedly partnering up with Metaco to potentially offer crypto custody services to its own clients, making it the latest institutional powerhouse to start dipping its toes into the cryptocurrency space.

BNP Paribas is the second largest banking group in Europe and the ninth biggest in the world. It has almost $13 trillion in assets under custody.

Metaco is a Swiss company specializing in digital asset custody for institutional clients; it also provides crypto trading and decentralized finance (DeFi) onboarding services. Other prominent banks, such as Société Générale and Citigroup, have recently come to Metaco for crypto custody deals.

BNP Paribas is only the latest banking giant showing interest in the crypto space. Société Générale’s digital asset subsidiary, SG-Forge, was recently added to DeFi stablecoin issuer MakerDAO’s vaults; the bank will be able to borrow up to $30 million in DAI from the protocol. Another institution, U.S-regulated Huntingdon Valley Bank, can take out up to $100 million.

Meanwhile asset management companies have also been looking into providing custody services for their clients. Most notably, U.S. investment firm Fidelity has indicated plans to expand its product offering by adding Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies to their digital asset platform. Fidelity had previously allowed clients to make Bitcoin part of their 401(k) accounts.

These investment and banking firms’ enthusiasm for crypto stands in sharp contrast to the approach taken by regulators and central governing bodies. The European Central Bank declared last week that an eventual Bitcoin ban was probable.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this piece owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.