German tokenization firm Cashlink lands custody license

Germany’s Cashlink Technologies has been awarded a crypto custody license by regulator BaFin. The company already holds a license as a crypto securities registrar. Despite using the term crypto, both roles encompass digital securities. Under German law, it’s possible to use a registrar instead of a central securities depository (CSD) when the securities are issued on a DLT. With the new license, it can now look after the private keys related to the tokenized securities it’s involved in issuing and registering.

Cashlink is one of the most prolific crypto securities registrars working with clients such as KfW, Metzler and Helaba’s WIBank.

“With the combination of our license as a crypto securities registrar and the new crypto custody license, we offer a unique, comprehensive service offering around tokenized securities,” said Michael Duttlinger, CEO of Cashlink. “This strong regulatory foundation not only strengthens our market leadership as a neutral infrastructure provider for tokenized assets but also consistently drives forward the development of Capital Markets 2.0.”

Regarding its license as a registrar, the company operated on a sandbox basis for quite some time, but it was awarded a license in June. DekaBank received a license at the same time. Currently Cashlink is the only startup to hold the full crypto registrar license.

ECB DLT settlement trials

This year Cashlink helped government-owned KfW issue two digital bonds, one for €100 million and the other for €50 million. The second one was part of the European Central Bank wholesale DLT settlement trials in central bank money. Hence, it used Germany’s Trigger solution that links to the Target2 payment system. Both bonds were issued on the Polygon public blockchain. Cashlink was also involved in a registered bond issuance for Helaba’s WIBank which was part of the same trials.

So far Cashlink has been quite focused on Germany. However, the custody license will also allow it to provide cryptocurrency and stablecoin custody under the EU’s MiCA regulations. To do so, Germany has to pass a law that properly enables MiCAR.

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