Danske Bank, the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in Northern Europe with over five million customers, is for the first time enabling customers to purchase Bitcoin and Ether exchange-traded products (ETPs) from BlackRock and WisdomTree via its eBanking and Mobile Banking platforms.
Recent offer, announced Wednesday, is open exclusively to self-investors – customers who trade on the bank’s platform without receiving investment advice – and is clearly framed as a response to “increasing customer demand” and “better regulation” following the introduction of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regime.
The bank said customers can initially purchase three “carefully selected” ETPs, two tracking Bitcoin (BTC) and one tracking Ether (ETH), offered by BlackRock and WisdomTree and covered by the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive II (MiFID) investor protection and cost transparency provisions, which the bank says provide distinct advantages over direct coin custody, including ease of trading and secure custody.
Kerstin Lysholm, director of investment products and offerings at Danske Bank, said in a release that as cryptocurrencies become more common as an asset class, the bank is receiving “an increasing number of inquiries from customers wanting to be able to invest in cryptocurrencies as part of their investment portfolio.”
She added that regulation had “increased confidence in cryptocurrencies overall” and led the bank to conclude that “it was time” to make such products available to customers who accepted the “very high risks” associated with them.
Related: UBS weighing cryptocurrency trading for private banking clients: report
From platform bans to strictly controlled access
The change comes after years of caution around digital assets. In 2018, Danske Bank he said has been negative towards cryptocurrencies and banned trading them and related instruments on its own platforms, warning customers against investing due to concerns about transparency, regulation, volatility and financial crime.
In 2021, Danske updated its policy in a four-point notice, stating that it will not itself offer any cryptocurrency services to its customers, but will not interfere with transactions originating from cryptocurrency platforms.
Lysholm said Danske still views cryptocurrencies as “opportunistic investments” rather than part of a long-term portfolio strategy, and said access to ETPs “should not be viewed as a recommendation for a given asset class.”
The announcement stated that investments in cryptocurrencies “involve very high risk” and may result in immense losses, therefore a suitability check is being introduced in the flow. Before making a transaction, customers must answer questions to ensure they have sufficient experience and knowledge to understand the risks and characteristics of ETP cryptocurrencies.
A broader European trend
Other European lenders are also starting to take advantage of regulated cryptocurrency offerings.
BBVA, Spain’s second-largest bank, has launched Bitcoin and Ether trading and custody services for all retail clients in Spain in 2025, after piloting similar services for private banking clients in Switzerland.
Germany’s Deutsche Bank is also reportedly preparing to roll out a cryptocurrency custody service in 2026 in partnership with Bitpanda and Swiss digital asset firm Taurus.
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