solarisBank AG, a Berlin-based banking technology company, today announced the establishment of its subsidiary solaris Digital Assets GmbH. The 100% subsidiary of solarisBank will provide an API-accessible platform that adds a custody solution to the full range of solarisBank’s digital white-label banking services.
Last year, solarisBank made a contribution to the decentralized world in 2018 by launching the solarisBank Blockchain Factory as a banking infrastructure provider. solaris Digital Assets will further advance solarisBank’s blockchain activities by supplementing the banking infrastructure with a custody solution for digital assets.
“We started our first steps into the industries of blockchain and cryptocurrencies almost two years ago by launching the Blockchain Factory. 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.”
– Michael Offermann, Managing Director for crypto banking activities at solarisBank
With digital assets already comprising a multi-billion-dollar market, the secure custody of digital assets has become an acute regulatory concern. Market participants engaged in cryptographic safekeeping are consequently required to be licensed by local regulators, such as the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
As a subsidiary of solarisBank AG, solaris Digital Assets plans to fulfill the regulatory requirements of the German market and ensure the compliant storage of digital assets, so that partners do not have to apply for a license themselves. Accordingly, the company will apply for a license for the crypto custody business (Kryptoverwahrgeschäft) in 2020.
“Digital assets will transform the way in which we exchange value. 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.”
– Alexis Hamel, Managing Director of solaris Digital Assets
The first product of solaris Digital Assets is a white-label custody solution for digital assets, which combines maximal security with instant accessibility to meet the demands of today’s digital asset industry. First partners are already testing the custody solution, which can be combined with digital banking services such as identification solutions or digital bank accounts to build a full digital asset ecosystem.
