Coincheck G Partners with French DFNS to Explore Custody Solutions for Institutional Investors

Strategic Partnership with DFNS

Coincheck Group N.V. (NASDAQ: CNCK), the parent company of Coincheck, announced on August 31 that it has entered into a strategic partnership with the French wallet infrastructure company DFNS, headquartered in Paris. Coincheck aims to build a custody infrastructure for institutional investors in Japan through the implementation of DFNS's technology.

Custody refers to services that store and manage digital asset private keys on behalf of clients. In this partnership, both companies plan to collaborate to integrate DFNS's technology into Coincheck, but the realization of the service is contingent upon compliance with regulatory requirements and the formal signing of contracts between the two parties.

What is DFNS's Wallet Infrastructure?

The Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS) infrastructure provided by DFNS consolidates transaction approval flows, private key management, and integration with external services into a single management platform. It supports over 100 blockchains and can be implemented both as a cloud-based SaaS and an on-premises solution where financial institutions can manage key information in their own environments. DFNS also claims to standardly support dedicated hardware security modules (HSM) for protecting cryptographic keys.

According to DFNS, its technology has been adopted by over 400 financial institutions and fintech companies, with managed assets exceeding $100 billion. Pascal St-Jean, CEO of Coincheck Group, explained that to extend the trust built with retail customers over the past decade to services for institutional investors, a different level of custody infrastructure is necessary, stating that DFNS's wallet technology and expertise in the institutional investor sector will strengthen existing operations.

Different Strategies for Institutional Investors

In May of this year, Coincheck Group announced a capital participation by KDDI, revealing that KDDI would acquire 14.9% of the company's outstanding shares. At the same time, KDDI, au Financial Holdings, and Coincheck formed a new company, "au Coincheck Digital Assets Co., Ltd.," which will engage in a non-custodial wallet business where users manage their own private keys, with plans to offer personal wallets starting in the summer of 2026.

The partnership with DFNS targets a custody infrastructure used by financial institutions such as trust banks, distinguishing it from personal services. Coincheck Group has clearly indicated its intention to expand its business into the institutional investor sector in addition to its personal services. DFNS's CEO, Clarisse Hagège, evaluated Japan as one of the world's most well-regulated digital asset markets and expressed plans to expand the company's wallet infrastructure into the Japanese market.

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