Three people who know about the deal say that the French bank BNP Paribas (BNP) is getting into crypto custody through a partnership with the Swiss firm Metaco.
Many large banks are moving toward crypto custody. Still, this deal is significant because BNP Paribas Securities Services is a primary global custodian with almost $13 trillion in assets under custody.
BNP Paribas did not respond to requests for comments. Metaco declined to comment.
Metaco recently signed a custody technology deal with the French bank Societe Generale (GLE), making it the go-to provider for banks and institutions wanting to get into crypto. They also recently announced a deal with Citigroup (C). It had previously dealt with BBVA (BBVA), Zodia Custody, DBS, and UnionBank Philippines.
The service that Metaco will provide for SocGen and Citi will focus on security tokens, such as tokenized versions of stocks or other financial instruments, and less on pure cryptocurrencies.
In a previous interview with CoinDesk, Adrien Treccani, the CEO of Metaco, said this is a popular trend among French banks getting into the digital asset space.
