Coinbase's German entity becomes first firm authorized to provide crypto custody in the country

Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, or BaFin, has given crypto exchange Coinbase the green light to carry out crypto custody business in the country, the financial regulator announced Monday. 

This will make the German entity of Coinbase the first company authorized to provide crypto custody services in Germany, according to BaFin. According to the announcement published today, because this is a new business model, BaFin has created an interdisciplinary, cross-divisional team that will oversee any issues related to crypto custody business.  

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Last year, German regulators passed legislation that would allow companies to provide crypto custody services but required prior approval from BaFin. 

Coinbase Germany's approval comes two months after BaFin issued a warning about crypto exchange Binance's stock tokens offering. The regulatory body rejected Binance's request to remove the warning, stating that under German law, securities and other "investment products," like tokenized stocks cannot be sold without approval. 

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Saniya More (pronounced: Saan-ya Mo-ray) is a quadrilingual journalist at The Block. She got her master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and did her undergraduate degree at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse University. Her work has appeared in CBS News, Bangkok Post, Thai Enquirer, Globalists, Byline Times and other publications. When she’s not chasing a story, you will most likely find her biking, tweeting, taking photos or creating Spotify playlists for every occasion.