DZ Bank, one of Germany’s largest banking groups by assets, has been licensed under the EU’s Cryptocurrency Markets Regulation (MiCA), removing a key regulatory hurdle to providing crypto services within the jurisdiction.
DZ Bank announced On Wednesday, it received approval from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) to operate the “meinKrypto” crypto platform, which is intended to provide cryptocurrency trading infrastructure to banks within the German cooperative banking network. The platform will be made available to participating local banks in the coming months.
In the DZ model, Bank will act as the central operator of the platform, while individual cooperative banks will decide whether to offer cryptocurrency services to their retail clients. Each participating bank must submit a separate MiCA notification to BaFin before allowing cryptocurrency trading.
At launch, the offering will support Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Cardano (ADA) and will be integrated directly into the VR banking app as a standalone investment option.
The approval of MiCA marks the implementation phase of DZ Bank’s crypto plans
The MiCA license marks the transition from planning to execution of DZ Bank’s crypto strategy, after years of regulatory preparations by European financial institutions.
MiCA establishes a single legal framework for crypto assets and related services across the EU, replacing fragmented national systems with a single supervisory standard.
DZ Bank’s approval allows it to legally operate crypto infrastructure within. However, it does not automatically allow retail distribution across its entire network.
Banks that want to offer crypto services to their consumers via infrastructure must engage with regulators on a case-by-case basis before offering cryptocurrency trading.
The “meinKrypto” platform was jointly developed by DZ Bank and Atruvia, an IT service provider of the German cooperative financial group.
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Continuation of previous implementation plans
On September 19, 2024, DZ Bank partnered with Boerse Stuttgart Digital to provide cryptocurrency trading and custody services to approximately 700 cooperative banks, with initial rollout scheduled for slow 2024. At the time, the initiative was defined as a phased rollout pending regulatory approvals.
The approval resolves a key uncertainty surrounding previous plans, providing a clear legal basis for the provision of large-scale crypto services in the EU.
Although universal access to retail services is not immediate, the license positions DZ Bank as one of the first huge banking groups to implement MiCA in practice.
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