BBVA taps Ripple for institutional Bitcoin, Ether custody in Europe

Ripple will provide crypto custody services to Spains BBVA bank, expanding its existing partnership amid MiCA-driven adoption by European banks.

Ripple, the US blockchain firm behind the XRP cryptocurrency, will provide crypto custody services to Spanish bank Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA).

According to a Tuesday announcement, Ripple‘s agreement to provide crypto custody services to BBVA follows the bank’s recent announcement of its Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) retail trading and custody service. BBVA will rely on Ripples institutional custody service to power services to its customers.

BBVA‘s head of digital assets, Francisco Maroto, said that Ripple’s custody service allows it to meet the necessary standards to “directly provide an end-to-end custody service.”

Ripple‘s managing director for the European region, Cassie Craddock, said the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has encouraged local banks to move forward with initiatives such as BBVAs.

“BBVA has long been one of the regions most innovative banks,” she said, with her comments following recent reports that its advisers had told wealthy clients to invest between 3% and 7% of their portfolios in crypto.

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria headquarters in Bilbao, Spain. Source: Wikimedia

This is not the first collaboration between the firms. BBVA Switzerland decided to move its crypto custody infrastructure to Ripple‘s service back at the end of 2023, and Turkey-based Garanti BBVA adopted Ripple’s service in 2024.

MiCA driving adoption among European banks

The rollout of MiCA has prompted a wave of traditional banks to enter the crypto sector. Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, the deputy CEO of EU-based crypto exchange Bitpanda, told Cointelegraph in April 2024 that some of the European Unions largest banks are looking to enter the crypto industry as a result of MiCA.

The prediction proved to be right on the money. BBVA‘s moves follow early July reports that Germany’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank, plans to allow its clients to store cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin next year.

Deutsche Börse‘s trading unit, Clearstream, is also preparing to launch cryptocurrency custody and settlement services for institutional clients this year. Earlier this year, Boerse Stuttgart Digital Custody became Germany’s first crypto asset service provider to receive a full license underMiCA.

Standard Chartered, one of the worlds largest banks, also launched its cryptocurrency services in Europe after obtaining a digital asset license in Luxembourg in early January.