Dfns Chosen by IBM to Drive the Future of Institutional Blockchain Infrastructure

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International Business Machines Corp. is launching a digital assets platform to allow financial institutions, governments and companies to launch blockchain-based services, as crypto activity gathers steam.

The new offering, called Digital Asset Haven, was built together with crypto wallet technology provider Dfns, the companies said in a statement on Monday. IBM and Dfns are seeking to take advantage of a rising appetite among clients for creating and managing digital-asset services ranging from custody to settlement.

“The alternative is they [companies] build it all themselves or they take piece parts and build it all themselves,” said Tina Tarquinio, chief product officer for the IBM Z and LinuxONE businesses, in an interview. “This is a pretty significant bundle that would really jump-start what they’re doing.”

IBM’s launch comes as major financial institutions expand further into cryptoassets. One area of particular interest is stablecoins, the tokens typically pegged to currencies like the dollar that are gaining traction in payments after the US adopted legislation governing them in July.

Earlier this month, a group of international banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Banco Santander, joined forces to explore stablecoin-like digital money, while nine European lenders and Citigroup Inc. have teamed up to develop a regulated euro-based stablecoin.

Crypto activity among large companies has been fueled by policy shifts following the election of Donald Trump, including the passage of the GENIUS Act governing stablecoins and a series of pro-crypto appointments across key regulatory bodies.

Stablecoin Payments Have More Than Doubled Since August 2024, Source: Artemis Analytics

While banks and other corporates have been experimenting with blockchain-based technology for over a decade, few services have reached major scale or have become commercially viable. One of the challenges for banks and other large payments firms is ensuring new systems can integrate with decades-old infrastructure while maintaining the same level of reliability that keeps global commerce running.

“For digital assets to be integrated into core banking and capital markets systems, the underlying infrastructure must meet the same standards as traditional financial rails,” said Clarisse Hagège, Dfns’s chief executive officer.

IBM, which says it works with more than 90 of the world’s largest banks, has seen its shares rally 40% this year as investors bet on growth at its software unit.