Deutsche Bank AG now appears on ESMA's register of authorised crypto-asset service providers. The entry is unusual in one respect: its authorisation date is 12 October 2026 — almost four weeks after the row appeared. The register is telling you about a licence before it takes effect.
Trade coverage has reported the outline: BaFin authorisation for crypto custody and transfers, first customers before the end of 2026. The register adds the parts that matter for anyone deciding whether they can actually use the service: exactly which of MiCA's ten services, and in which member states.
What the register shows
| Entity | Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft |
| Register | ESMA interim MiCA register (CASPs) |
| LEI | 7LTWFZYICNSX8D621K86 |
| Competent authority | Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) |
| Home member state | DE |
| Services | (a) custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients; (j) transfer services for crypto-assets on behalf of clients |
| Host member states | DE |
| Authorised from | 2026-10-12 |
| Register row | /registry/mica/7LTWFZYICNSX8D621K86 |
Source: ESMA's consolidated CASP register, snapshot of 17 September 2026. The service wording is the register's own.
Two of ten services, one of twenty-seven markets
MiCA defines ten crypto-asset services, lettered (a) to (j). Deutsche Bank holds two:
- (a) custody and administration — holding clients' crypto-assets and managing the keys.
- (j) transfer services — moving crypto-assets between addresses on a client's instruction.
It does not hold, as of this register entry: (b) operating a trading platform, (c) exchange of crypto-assets for funds, (d) exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets, (e) execution of orders, (f) placing, (g) reception and transmission of orders, (h) advice, or (i) portfolio management. In plain terms: the bank can hold your bitcoin and move it, and cannot — under this authorisation — buy or sell it for you.
The host-state column reads DE only. MiCA lets an authorised CASP passport into other EU/EEA states by notifying its home regulator, and the register lists the states it has notified. Deutsche Bank has, so far, notified none. A "MiCA licence" is routinely described as covering "the 27-member bloc"; on the register, this one covers Germany.
The BNY parallel
If this scoping sounds familiar, it is exactly what we found when BNY's MiCA licence made headlines in July: custody (a) plus transfers (j), one home state, no passports notified — see BNY SA/NV's register row. Two of the world's largest custodian banks have entered MiCA with the same minimal, custody-shaped footprint. The scope is the product: institutional safekeeping for clients who already have a trading venue, not a retail exchange.
Compare the cooperative sector's central institution, DZ BANK AG, authorised on 23 December 2025 for custody (a), order execution (e) and transfers (j) — the shape you need to actually offer trading to end customers, which is what the Volksbanken rollout now visible on the register is built on.
About that future date
ESMA's interim register is compiled from national regulators' notifications, and it carries the authorisation date the regulator reports — here, a date still weeks away when the row was published. We read this as BaFin's decision having been taken with a deferred effective date, and ESMA publishing on notification rather than on effect. Two practical consequences:
- If your counterparty policy requires an effective authorisation, Deutsche Bank's custody service does not meet it until 12 October 2026.
- The register is now routinely ahead of the effective date, not just ahead of the press release. Monitoring it weekly gives you lead time, not just confirmation.
Deutsche Bank's directory profile carries the entity data we hold; for regulated crypto-asset services already live in Germany, see the German provider listing and the full MiCA register view.
Why the register beats the announcement
Coverage of a licence tends to repeat the announcement's framing; the register records scope. Which services, which member states, effective when, under which authority — and it changes before anyone writes it up, or without anyone writing it up at all. That is what License Watch monitors weekly across ESMA's MiCA register and the FCA, EBA, FINTRAC, FinCEN and ASIC registers, with a citation link to the regulator's own record on every line. No claim without a citation.
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PaymentProviders.io is an informational service. Registry data belongs to the issuing regulators; status labels reflect the regulator's own wording. This article is not financial or legal advice, and PaymentProviders.io is not affiliated with Deutsche Bank.
