Germany's Sparkasse is working to launch a crypto trading service for its 50 million customers. The service from Germany's largest banking association would allow customers to buy and sell cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin as early as next year.
The association of German savings banks wants to enable their customers to enter the crypto world from their own accounts. The crypto wallet is to be linked directly to the checking account. The offering would cut out intermediaries such as Bitcoin exchanges and would not require any additional verification procedures or intermediate transactions.
Regional principle of the savings bank
However, due to the regional principle of the Sparkasse, each of the 370 branches will decide for itself whether or not to introduce the new function. Around 50 million customers would thus be able to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum directly via their existing checking accounts. According to reports, savings bank boards will vote on the project in early 2022.
"The project is a kind of feasibility study for now. It will be examined what possibilities and risks a wallet offers in which savings bank customers can safely store crypto assets." - Alexander Hartberg, spokesman for the German Savings Banks and Giro Association, in an interview with Tagesspiegel.
If approved, the first version of the Bitcoin trading offering could be launched later that year. It would then be up to the 370 local savings banks to decide whether or not to introduce trading.
Surveys on cryptocurrencies
The Sparkassen Institute "Competence Center Market Research" surveyed a total of 1,000 private customers aged 16 and older on how they feel about cryptocurrencies. 92 percent of respondents know what cryptocurrencies are, but only 11 percent currently use one or more currencies. About 7 percent owned one or more cryptocurrencies in the past. Surveys of hedge funds and asset managers also show growing interest in the emerging asset class.
The vote to trade cryptocurrencies at Sparkasse joins a number of institutional crypto providers. PayPal, for example, made cryptocurrency payment options available on its platform as early as 2020. Similarly, credit card giant Mastercard has announced plans to embed the emerging asset class into its existing payments infrastructure.
