From: RegTech Analyst
German tech company solarisBank has unveiled its new subsidiary solaris Digital Assets, to strengthen its grip on the digital assets market.
This is not the first push along this avenue for solarisBank. It launched solarisBank Blockchain Factory, a banking infrastructure provider, in 2018.
“We started our first steps into the industries of blockchain and cryptocurrencies almost two years ago by launching the Blockchain Factory,” said Michael Offermann (pictured), managing director for crypto banking activities at solarisBank. “Our vision was to provide banking infrastructure for blockchain pioneers in order to bridge the gap between banking and crypto.
“Fantastic partnerships such as Bitwala, Bison and BSDEX by Börse Stuttgart demonstrate how we brought this vision to life. Now, we’re deepening this engagement by focusing fully on becoming the main infrastructure provider for digital asset pioneers with solaris Digital Assets. It’s the logical next step.”
solaris Digital Assets’s first product will be a white-label custody solution for digital assets, which the FinTech enterprise claims combines maximal security with instant accessibility to meet the demands of today’s digital asset industry. It is currently being tested.
The news comes as the digital currencies have returned into the spotlight thanks to Libra, the cryptocurrency project spearheaded by Facebook, being announced this summer.
Since the unveiling the project, which was initially set to launch in 2020, the market has been flooded by concerns about what the impact of new digital assets would have on the market.
These are concerns that Saga, the self-described democratic digital currency that is poised as a Libra rival, has also noted when it was launched earlier this week.
Similarly, solarisBank acknowledges that tapping into this multi-billion dollar market will come attached with the challenge of overcoming several regulatory obstacles.
“Digital assets will transform the way in which we exchange value,” said Alexis Hamel, managing director of solaris Digital Assets. “However, we see that there are still massive hurdles to launch compliant and secure digital asset services. The current infrastructure is simply not customer-friendly enough for mass adoption.
“That’s why we want to empower digital asset pioneers with our one-stop-shop platform, which provides a cutting-edge custody solution alongside licensed digital banking services, such as accounts, cards or KYC services. Our advanced APIs coupled with our regulatory expertise put us in a prime position to pursue our vision of driving digital asset adoption.”
solaris Digital Assets plans to ensure it fully complies with regulations outlined by watchdogs like the Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
BaFin recently blocked Deutsche Bank from allowing the former UBS manger Juerg Zeltner from becoming a member of the bank’s board of directors due to potential conflict of interest concerns related to him representing Qatar’s royal family.
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