Germany's savings banks and cooperative banks are accelerating crypto trading for retail customers. Moreover, they are integrating it directly into their banking apps. Coordinated through DZ Bank and DekaBank, up to 80 million customers gain regulated access to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. As a result, customers no longer need a detour through a third-party platform.
Savings banks and cooperative banks form the public-law and cooperative backbone of German retail banking. This group also includes the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken. As branch banks for everyday customers, they originally counted as conservative. For a long time, they stayed clearly separated from direct banks or crypto exchanges. DZ Bank received BaFin approval under MiCAR at the end of December 2025. Shortly afterwards, the "meinKrypto" platform went live in the VR Banking App in January 2026. The IT service provider Atruvia developed it after a pilot project with six cooperative banks. Meanwhile, DekaBank prepares a parallel offering for the roughly 340 savings banks. At launch, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Cardano are tradable, whereas the savings banks initially focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum. More than a third of the roughly 700 affiliated cooperative banks plan to launch in the coming months.
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How DZ Bank organizes crypto trading centrally for cooperative banks
The technical and regulatory foundation of meinKrypto rests entirely with DZ Bank, the central institution of the cooperative financial group. At the end of December 2025, BaFin granted approval under MiCAR. Afterwards, the platform launched in the VR Banking App in January 2026. Since then, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Cardano have been tradable, embedded in the existing app interface.
Boerse Stuttgart Digital handles custody of the cryptocurrencies, while EUWAX AG executes the orders. Additionally, the IT service provider Atruvia, which supports the cooperative financial group, acted as technical co-developer. DZ Bank manages users' private keys centrally, which removes the technical self-custody risk for end customers. For end customers, this means an entry point without their own wallet management or seed phrase. They trade directly from the familiar app.
Despite this central infrastructure, however, the rollout remains decentrally organized. Each of the roughly 700 independent primary institutions must file its own MiCA notification with BaFin. Only then can it activate meinKrypto locally. Beforehand, a pilot project with six cooperative banks ran in 2025. Meanwhile, more than a third of the affiliated institutions plan to launch in the coming months.
Why savings banks proceed more cautiously with DekaBank's crypto offering
DekaBank is 100% owned by the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. For the roughly 340 savings banks, it takes on the same role as DZ Bank in the cooperative camp. As the group's central securities house, the institution bundles settlement and custody for the decentrally organized institutions. The securities service provider is preparing an equivalent crypto offering. Its staggered launch should follow later in 2026. For now, only Bitcoin and Ether are tradable, a considerably narrower selection than at meinKrypto.
The restraint in distribution stands out. The savings banks offer the product without advice and do not actively promote it. Furthermore, they explicitly warn customers about the risk of total loss. As a result, the group deliberately positions the offering as lower-risk instead of placing an aggressive growth bet.
Nevertheless, the contrast with the cooperative camp turns out smaller than it first appears. Both sectors respond to the same competitive pressure, yet choose different speeds. The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe alone ultimately reaches around 50 million customers, which makes the market entry significant even with cautious promotion.
The shift away from the official crypto rejection
The move marks a reversal of a previously openly communicated rejection. As recently as 2023, the German Savings Banks Association (DSGV) officially classified cryptocurrencies as "highly speculative" and rejected retail access. Within roughly two years, this stance consequently shifted from fundamental opposition to regulated distribution. The trigger, however, lies less in a new view of price developments than in a changed legal framework.
Ultimately decisive is the EU-wide MiCA regulation, whose transition period has now expired. For custody and trading, institutions therefore need BaFin approval under MiCAR. The regulation replaces the previous national patchwork with a uniform EU rulebook. An approval once granted thus generally holds across the entire single market. In this way, the former regulatory uncertainty turns into a calculable framework. On this basis, standardized mass-market products can first emerge. At the same time, interest is growing noticeably. According to a September 2025 study by the cooperative association, 71% of cooperative banks showed interest in crypto services. That figure was up from 54% the year before.
Behind the rethink therefore stands the concern about losing younger customer groups to specialized providers. For the institutions, crypto thus turns from a reputational question into a competitive factor. Ralf Kölbach chairs the board of Westerwald Bank, which is involved in the meinKrypto rollout. He names this pressure bluntly.
"Credit institutions that skip crypto offerings risk losing younger, tech-savvy customers." - Ralf Kölbach, chairman of the board, Westerwald Bank
What the access means for up to 80 million bank customers
Together, the two sectors reach up to 80 million customer relationships. Around 50 million sit at the savings banks and around 30 million at the cooperative banks. With 84 million inhabitants, regulated crypto access therefore potentially reaches a large share of the German population. For many branch customers, trading shifts for the first time from specialized exchanges into the familiar house-bank app.
The decisive lever lies in the distribution channel itself. Anyone who previously wanted to buy cryptocurrencies had to open a separate account at a crypto exchange or neobroker. In addition, they had to go through a separate identity check there. Through the banking app, this detour disappears, because customers trade from an already verified environment. A survey by Boerse Stuttgart Digital suggests that real demand stands behind this. According to it, 38% of Germans trust their house bank for crypto transactions, while only 19% prefer specialized crypto platforms. In addition, around a quarter of Germans have already invested in cryptocurrencies.
Such a trust advantage for the established institutions shifts the competitive position against pure crypto exchanges noticeably. For the specialized providers, serious competition from branch banking consequently arises for the first time. Moreover, DZ Bank expects further adoption beyond the institutions already active. Product specialist Markus Bärenfänger said the bank expects hundreds of additional cooperative banks to join the platform. If this expectation holds, the local banks' banking apps would gain enormous reach. They would become one of the broadest distribution channels for crypto assets in Germany.
