According to a report from Bloomberg, the banking giant Deutsche Bank is ready to double down on crypto and digital assets. Financial institutions will take advantage of the recent downward pressure in the sector to take advantage of “interesting opportunities,” according to a statement from Stefan Hoops, CEO of DWS Group.
The bank is evaluating possible investments in the crypto industry through asset management DWS. According to people familiar with the matter, the financial institution is locked in and ready to inject capital into two German crypto companies.
Crypto Winter Brings Opportunities, Banks Ready to Harvest
Bloomberg claims that Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm could buy a minority stake in Tradias or Deutsche Digital Assets. The latter company operates as a crypto exchange, while Tradias runs a brokerage firm used by prominent clients, including local authorities and the Republic of Commerce.
Owned by Bankhaus Scheich, Tradias became central in the sale of seized digital assets without spiking volatility in the sector after a request from Frankfurt prosecutors in 2021. At that time, the authorities “cleaned” more than $ 113 million in digital assets seized through the Tradias platform.
Bankhaus Scheich and Tradias are committed to continuing to cooperate with future investigations. Thus, the company has a good reputation in the country.
In that sense, it seems the most likely candidate to receive DWS investment. According to Bloomberg, Hoops and its asset management arm want to improve the company’s reputation after facing accusations of “greenwashing,” which has led to German and US investigations.
Bloomberg claims that Hoops has become a public advocate of crypto and digital assets. Under his leadership, the company has been working on a blockchain and crypto-focused strategy to strengthen its foothold in the new asset class.
Asset managers and financial institutions are looking for new opportunities to reduce new losses. The report says that the company will experience an outflow of more than 20 billion euros and a decrease of 107 billion euros in assets under management from 2022.
The metric declined due to the global crash in financial markets and a general de-risking sentiment among investors. Thus, the company wants to increase investor confidence. Hoops outlined the company’s ambitions in the crypto space during its earnings call last week; the report states:
(…) start to establish strategic partners and start due diligence on potential targets.