- BNP Paribas, the largest banks in the eurozone, has announced it will start offering bitcoin custody services.
- The bank has partnered up with Metaco, a digital asset custody firm from Switzerland with experience to bridge traditional banking existing infrastructure with bitcoin.
- Fireblocks will host a hot wallet and provide infrastructure-based services.
The partnership of BNP Paribas, a French-based international bank, with the Swiss company specializing in crypto infrastructure METACO has just been confirmed.
The BNP conglomerate is an impressive banking powerhouse with 2.6 trillion Euro in assets.
| Net income |  €9.5 billion (2021)[2] |
|---|---|
| Total assets | €2.6 trillion (2021)[2] |
| Total equity | €117.9 billion (2021)[2] |
The alliance between the two companies means that BNP Paribas will now be able to advance its agenda of integrating bitcoin services to its customers. The management has also made public that the intention exists to bring security tokens into traditional finance. In the light of new regulatory steps proposed by the SEC, this could foreshadow a new wave of regulated token sales in line with new EU regulation.
BNP Paribas Securities Services, the bank’s custodian subsidiary, is currently holds over $13 trillion in assets under management. METACO a pioneer specializing in introducing cryptocurrency services to financial organization brings clients of global relevance to the table. A few weeks ago, the French financial giant Societe Generale partnered with METACO, mainly to focus on security tokens.
METACO’s mission as a technology company is to enable both financial and non-financial institutions to “securely manage their digital asset business and take advantage of the booming digital asset economy.”
These developments are currently taking place in a context marked by the constant acceleration of market adoption of bitcoin and serious attempts of global players to find profitable business scenarios.
Upcoming EU directives are focused on enabling the processing of security tokens through insititutions that are compatible with the region’s applicable regulations.
Banks are starting to catch up with the innovation that Bitcoin brought to the financial world. Banks such as German Bayern LB have experimented with Bitcoin already years ago. Bank of America has recently made public that they believe Bitcoin could continue to be successful. Towerbank of Panama has started to offer bitcoin services just like banks in Brasil, Israel or Japan.
While security tokens still have some way to go to find regulatory frameworks that provide a clear advantage over traditional securities law, bitcoin is marching on as savings technology enabling anyone to hedge against currency debasement.
The simple, yet powerful value proposition might as well make security token offerings history before they happen. As seen with the advent of ICOs then IEOs and recently NFTs, the idea to create digital tokens other than bitcoin are side shows that die out a few years later.
