Deutsche Börse, an international exchange organisation, has acquired a majority stake in Crypto Finance to extend its digital assets offering.
Crypto Finance is an independent financial group under consolidated FINMA supervision that offers trading, storage, and investment in digital assets to clients.
Deutsche Börse will acquire a two-thirds majority in the firm, with the remaining stake held by existing investors, including CEO and founder Jan Brzezek, who will continue in his current role.
With the majority stake in Crypto Finance, Deutsche Börse aims to establish a neutral, transparent, and highly scalable digital asset ecosystem in Europe.
Deutsche Börse trading and clearing executive board member Thomas Book said: “We are excited that Crypto Finance is joining the Group.
“The team is an ideal strategic fit and will help us tremendously on our way to building a trusted and fully regulated digital asset ecosystem for institutional investors in Europe.
“Crypto Finance perfectly complements our recent offerings like 360X, the innovative DLT-based platform for serial marketplace creation, and our leading, centrally-cleared crypto ETNs.”
The fully licensed securities company offers trading and brokerage of more than 200 digital assets, in combination with a highly secure in-house custody solution.
It enables professional and institutional clients to directly invest in digital assets, without having to set up their own infrastructure and operational frameworks.
Also, Crypto Finance enables clients to store a wide range of digital assets securely with custody solutions, along with tokenisation and blockchain infrastructure services offering.
Operating under the Deutsche Börse Group, Crypto Finance is expected to further scale its business and expand the range of digital asset services.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021, subject to regulatory approvals.
Crypto Finance founder and CEO Jan Brzezek said: “Since the beginning, our goal was to bridge the old and new worlds. This is why we are excited to team up with a neutral partner like Deutsche Börse, who brings trust, reputation, and expertise in traditional financial market infrastructure.
“In combination with our proven expertise in crypto assets and the underlying technologies, we can now achieve our goals much faster. Together, we will enable thousands of financial institutions and professional investors in Europe to instantly enter this new asset class in a way they are familiar with.”
In November last year, Deutsche Börse agreed to acquire around 80% stake in Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) from private equity firm Genstar Capital for $1.8bn.
