The EU's first licensed crypto custody institution under MiCAR is born, and a subsidiary of a Dutch bank completes SDC derivative trading testing.

【Crypto World】Traditional financial institutions are making further progress in their布局 in the field of digital assets.

The digital custody subsidiary of ING Bank (HADC) recently received an official license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR). This means that the subsidiary can now provide crypto custody and trading-related services to institutional clients under the unified EU regulatory framework—essentially, large funds and institutions now have an approved formal channel to manage and trade digital assets.

More interestingly, ING Bank also partnered with DZ Bank to conduct a pilot. They completed their first international over-the-counter derivatives transaction using Smart Derivative Contract (SDC) technology, which took 10 days. This system automates transaction settlement, asset valuation, and collateral management using distributed ledger technology, and automatically handles daily payments through the SEPA payment system— in other words, complex processes that previously required manual coordination can now be handled with blockchain and smart contracts.

Looking at these two developments together, it shows that traditional finance’s attitude towards digital assets has shifted from observation to active operation, and they are employing the latest blockchain technology.