Crypto Finance

Crypto Finance started in Zurich in 2017 with a brokerage desk, its own custody and a crypto fund. In June 2021, Deutsche Börse Group agreed to buy a two-thirds majority in Crypto Finance AG, which then offered round-the-clock trading in more than 200 digital assets and was led by its founder and CEO Jan Brzezek. Crypto Finance is now the trading and custody arm of the digital asset business of Deutsche Börse, which also includes crypto custody at Clearstream and crypto futures at Eurex.

In September 2024, Crypto Finance sold its asset management company to the Singapore crypto firm Matrixport after FINMA had approved the deal. Stijn Vander Straeten, CEO of Crypto Finance, put trading, custody and staking at the core of the strategy, with Switzerland, Germany and the rest of Europe as its markets. In Frankfurt, Laura Hermann became managing director of Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH on 1 July 2026 and leads the company with Moritz Weber and Christian Müller.

For crypto custody, Crypto Finance keeps private keys in hardware security modules certified to FIPS 140-2 Level 3, which Swiss IT security firms built together with tamper-proof approval terminals. The setup never exposes a private key, an approval framework with whitelisted client accounts controls every transfer, and the assets of each client are kept segregated. Banks can link the custody service to their core banking system and reach it through an API, Swift, a web interface or an account at Clearstream Banking S.A. in Luxembourg.

The trading desk deals as principal 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in bitcoin, ether and more than 200 other crypto assets. Clients use streaming prices, requests for quote, limit, stop-loss and stop-limit orders, either through FIX and REST interfaces or in the LYNX trading screen. Since October 2025, clients who hold their assets with Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH can also stake ether and Solana on the infrastructure of the institutional staking provider Figment. In crypto staking, the holder locks coins to help secure a proof-of-stake network and receives rewards for it.

In Switzerland, FINMA lists Crypto Finance AG in its register of authorized banks and securities firms as a securities firm under foreign control, since its majority owner is based in Germany. Crypto Finance AG received the securities firm license in 2021 and is under the prudential supervision of FINMA.

In Germany, the financial supervisor BaFin granted Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH four licenses on 30 January 2024, for crypto custody, proprietary trading, own-account dealing and principal broking. On 24 January 2025, BaFin also authorized the company as a crypto-asset service provider under the Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) for five services: custody and administration, exchange of crypto assets for money, exchange for other crypto assets, execution of client orders and transfer services. A MiCAR license is valid in every EU member state, so the Frankfurt company serves institutional clients across the EU from one authorization. The three trading permissions under the German Banking Act ended on the same day because the law no longer required them, while the custody license continues as qualified crypto custody business under that act.

Inside Deutsche Börse Group, Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH is the sub-custodian behind crypto custody at Clearstream. With the service announced in March 2025, clients of Clearstream Banking S.A. settle and hold bitcoin and ether in their existing accounts over Swift, without a separate contract with a crypto firm. On 3DX, the crypto trading venue of the foreign exchange platform 360T, Crypto Finance and Clearstream act as settlement agents for delivery versus payment, which removes settlement risk and the need to prefund a trade.

Outside the group, Commerzbank gives selected corporate clients in Germany access to bitcoin and ether through a partnership announced in September 2024. In this setup, Commerzbank holds the coins under its own crypto custody license, and Crypto Finance executes the trades for the corporate clients of the bank.

Crypto Finance AG is the Swiss parent company of Crypto Finance Group, based in Zurich and authorized by FINMA as a securities firm. The company provides crypto trading, custody and staking for banks and other institutions and owns Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH in Frankfurt.

Crypto Finance Group belongs to Deutsche Börse Group, which agreed in June 2021 to buy a two-thirds majority in Crypto Finance AG and completed the purchase later that year. Deutsche Börse Group also runs the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, the derivatives exchange Eurex and the securities depository Clearstream.

Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH is the German subsidiary of Crypto Finance AG and is supervised by BaFin. Its MiCAR license covers custody, trading and transfers of crypto assets for institutional clients in all EU member states, and the company also holds the crypto custody license under the German Banking Act.

FINMA lists Crypto Finance AG in Zurich as a securities firm in its register of authorized banks and securities firms. In Switzerland, a securities firm trades securities on a professional basis for clients or on its own account and needs a FINMA license for this business.

The head office of Crypto Finance is at Hardstrasse 201 in 8005 Zurich, and the German company works from Bockenheimer Anlage 46 in 60322 Frankfurt am Main. Zurich is home to the FINMA-supervised parent company, while the Frankfurt office holds the BaFin and MiCAR licenses for the EU business.