Digital bank N26, based in Germany, will soon offer cryptocurrency trading to its account holders.
According to a Tweet, Austria will be the first country to allow an account holder to trade digital assets with other European countries coming soon.
The crypto trading services will be provided by Bitpanda, a successful digital asset marketplace based in Austria. Bitpanda offers an established white-label solution and thus probably made Austria a solid test market. N26 is expected to offer trading in almost 200 digital assets. Bitpanda also powers another known Fintech – Plum.
Bitpanda stated:
This partnership allies two leading fintechs of the DACH region in their shared goal of giving everyone simple, safe and convenient control over their finances. Through Bitpanda’s White Label Solution, it’s now possible for N26’s users to invest in almost 200 cryptocurrencies from as little as €1 — depending on their budget and risk appetite.
Bitpanda’s white-label solution is promoted as an option for traditional banks as well as Fintechs. Bitpanda also offers trading in more traditional assets like stocks and ETFs. Bitpanda is a registered digital assets service provider with the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) under FM-GwG and with the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) under PACTE law. Bitpanda Payments GmbH holds a PSD2 license.
The move by N26 makes a lot of sense as competitors offer similar services, so giving account holders the option to trade crypto helps to maintain the digital bank’s relevance.
N26 reports around 7 million customers – this, following a bit of retrenchment when it exited the US and UK markets. N26 received a European banking license in 2016 from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), so it is well positioned for growth in the European Union.