IBM Launches ‘Digital Asset Haven’ to Help Banks and Enterprises Manage Blockchain Assets Securely

• In a statement released this week, IBM introduced a platform built to support the digital asset operations of financial institutions and government bodies.
• Despite IBM’s reputation, institutional users will demand rigorous proof of security, attestations, audits, and penetration testing.

International Business Machines (IBM) has officially launched Digital Asset Haven. This comprehensive platform will enable financial institutions, governments, and large enterprises to manage blockchain assets securely, compliantly, and at scale.

As tokenization, stablecoins, and real-world assets on blockchain gain traction, institutions face a daunting landscape of fragmented infrastructures, regulatory uncertainty, and integration challenges.

Many organizations are still experimenting with pilot projects for crypto and tokenized assets. What they lack is a unified, secure, compliance-aware platform that can integrate with legacy systems and meet the stringent requirements of regulated stakeholders. IBM’s offering positions Digital Asset Haven to fill that infrastructure gap.

“With IBM Digital Asset Haven, our clients have the opportunity to enter and expand into the digital asset space backed by IBM’s level of security and reliability. This new, unified platform delivers the resilience and data governance they have been asking for, empowering governments and enterprises to build the next generation of financial services,” said Tom McPherson, General Manager, IBM Z and LinuxONE.

What Is Digital Asset Haven?

According to IBM’s report, Digital Asset Haven is a full-stack platform built to manage the entire lifecycle of digital assets, from wallet creation and transaction orchestration to settlement and governance. It features Transaction Lifecycle Management, which automates and routes blockchain transactions, tracks their progress, handles retries, and facilitates settlements across more than 40 public and private blockchains.

Its Governance and Entitlements layer introduces a programmable policy framework that lets organizations manage permissions, roles, and multi-party approvals, ensuring security and oversight at every level.

The platform draws on IBM’s world-class cryptographic infrastructure, including Multi-Party Computation (MPC), Hardware Security Modules (HSMs), and an Offline Signing Orchestrator (OSO) for cold-storage protection. It’s engineered for compliance with evolving regulatory standards and is ready to adapt to quantum-safe cryptography in the future.

To make operations seamless, Digital Asset Haven comes equipped with integrated services like KYC, AML, and identity verification, as well as support for yield-generation tools. Developers can easily expand functionality using REST APIs and SDKs.

Asset Haven will also offer flexible deployment options, available as SaaS, hybrid SaaS through LinuxONE / IBM Z, and soon as a fully on-premises deployment.

The platform is developed in partnership with Dfns, a specialist provider of wallet infrastructure. Dfns already powers over 15 million wallets across more than 250 clients, bringing deep institutional custody experience to the table.

IBM contributes its strengths in security, compliance, infrastructure (Z / LinuxONE), and enterprise credentials. Together, they aim to deliver a platform that meets the same operational standards as legacy financial rails.

Beyond the digital asset space, IBM is doubling down on artificial intelligence. In 2024, the company introduced a “Lightweight Engine” for its WatsonX.ai platform.

In September, IBM announced a partnership with Datavault AI, committing 20,000 hours of engineering, technical sales, and quantum-computing resources, an investment valued at around $5 million, to accelerate Datavault’s platform development.

IBM’s latest research highlights just how quickly AI is transforming enterprises across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). Surveying 3,500 senior executives across ten countries, the study found that two-thirds (66%) of organizations are already seeing significant productivity gains from AI adoption.

Even more, 92% of business leaders expect that agentic AI will deliver measurable returns on investment within the next two years.