blockworks.co
One of the oldest banks in Germany, Bankhaus von der Heydt, is using digital asset custody provider Fireblocks to expand its offerings of digital asset banking, securitization and fund services.
Fireblocks will be supporting the traditional and privately-owned Bankhaus von der Heydt to leverage its custody services alongside the Fireblocks Network to expand digital asset and crypto products to its customers, the company said Thursday.
Bankhaus von der Heydt was founded in 1754 and is 267 years old, making it one of the oldest banks in Germany to offer crypto custody and trading services. In December 2020, Bankhaus von der Heydt partnered with Bitbond to issue the first euro stablecoin (EURB) on the Stellar network.
“Although the crypto assets are held in trust by Bankhaus von der Heydt, they are not subject to any explicit insurance. In particular, there is no protection by the deposit insurance,” the bank said on their website.
Since launching in June 2020, the Fireblocks Network has amassed over 500 liquidity partners who actively move assets across 30 of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges, such as Binance, Bitfinex, Coinbase, FTX and more, Blockworks reported.
“We were very excited to partner with [Bankhaus von der Heydt] because there’s a lot of opportunities in the German market,” Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks, told Blockworks.
Fireblocks has seen strong demand and fast growth in Europe and operates with people in the United Kingdom, Nordics, France, Germany and Switzerland, Shaulov said.
“It’s a pretty important market for us. The European market is quite dynamic, you have a lot of challenger banks that we had the opportunity to partner with and FinTechs over there are very active, so it allows us to find very interesting clients that have meaningful activity that extend our reach and services to a large population of consumers,” Shaulov said.
While Bankhaus von der Heydt is Fireblocks’ latest client, it said it has supported a handful of traditional banks in the past including BNY Mellon, Signature Bank and Siam Commercial Bank. Siam Commercial Bank, BNY Mellon and SVB Capital have all invested in Fireblocks previously. With that said, Shaulov said banks are realizing they need to be a part of the transformation of digital assets.
“At the end of the day [banks] weren’t as prepared as they thought they were and at this moment in time, people always say change happens very slowly then suddenly and that’s what happened there,” Shaulov said. “It moved from no one will ever touch [crypto], it’ll die, to this,” he said.
In August, former US Securities and Exchange Commissioner Chairman Jay Clayton joined Fireblocks’ advisory board to help guide Fireblocks “on navigating requirements for the support, development and deployment of solutions for the emerging digital asset infrastructure,” the company said at the time.
In late July, Fireblocks raised $310 million in Series D funding, just four months after its last $133 million Series C round, the company said in a statement. Sequoia Capital, Stripes, Spark Capital, Coatue, DRW VC and SCB 10X co-led the round alongside Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand’s oldest bank.
Going forward, Fireblocks plans to expand its client base and focus on DeFi, Shaulov said.
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