Sumitomo Mitsui Trust, a Japanese bank with $664 billion in assets, has plans to create a subsidiary that will offer cryptocurrency custody services to institutional investors, Nikkei Asia reports.
The subsidiary, dubbed Japan Digital Asset Trust, will be a joint venture with an 85% stake in the cryptocurrency exchange Bitbank and a 15% stake in the bank.
Sumitomo Mitsui Trust believes large investors and corporations will feel more comfortable investing and owning digital assets if they can be trusted with a traditional financial institution with an established reputation like the bank.
The joint venture will also focus on the issuance of a yen-pegged stablecoin as the bank predicts an increase in demand for such assets in the future.
Japan Digital Asset Trust will have an initial capital of 300 million yen ($2.3 million).
