According to Cointelegraph, Deutsche Börse AG, the German stock exchange based in Frankfurt, has incorporated cryptocurrency into its strategic priorities for the coming years. The strategic report 'Horizont 2026', published on November 7, reveals that the company aims to expand its leading position in digital platforms for existing and new asset classes. Deutsche Börse believes that there is long-term growth potential from new technologies through the digitalization of existing or new asset classes. As a result, the company plans to speed up the development of its blockchain-backed D7 digital securities registry and create a trading platform for digital assets.
The digital asset platform will cater exclusively to institutional investors and provide tokenization, trading, settlement, and custody services for securities, alternative assets, and cryptocurrencies. The presentation also mentions stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), but their status on the potential platform is not specified. Deutsche Börse is not the first stock exchange to explore digital asset trading. Germany's second-largest stock exchange, Boerse Stuttgart, began offering cryptocurrency trading to its customers in April 2022. The London Stock Exchange Group is set to provide clearing services for dollar-denominated, cash-settled Bitcoin index futures and options contracts in 2024. The Frankfurt stock exchange has previous experience with crypto, as its digital exchange, Deutsche Börse Xetra, listed the Litecoin exchange-traded product (ETP) from London-based ETC Group in 2021.
