Bitcoin Forum

Website: https://www.wb21.com
Fee: https://www.wb21.com/fees/ (transfers to other banks 1% fee ...)

https://www.wb21.com/WBPressRelease14.06.16/
https://twitter.com/BitPay/status/742903465047908353

It uses Bitpay, 1% fee (if you want to deposit 100 euro, it will cost you 101 euro in Bitcoin)

You can open for free 4 account in different currencies.

It will ask id and residency documents.

It is possible to make a SEPA account for eur currency.


I don't work for them.

EDIT:
https://twitter.com/WebBank21
Hmmm, 207000 followers ...

Sorry i'm a quite confused because i dont see can deposit use bitcoin at wb21 or you offer third party service for who want deposit at wb21 the charge only 1% per transaction?

I don't get a point to use ID and residential info to use BitCoin.

1st important think about BitCoin is ANON!

You can pay/use BTC without any personal info... this is the point of bitcoin... for me this change nothing cuz Bank will know everything what did You done with BTC...

There's no fee for debit card cash withdrawal, that's interesting...

it is good project , I watched a lot of articles taking about this new bank today on newsbtc and other news sites , but for now I don't know who is behind this bank , and I also want to know if there are specific countries to work in or it is world wide , because I see that you can withdraw your money in many currencies like CNY and RUB  .

Where do they have branch offices just UK and HK?

would be nice to know more, do they also provide sepa wire transfer, etc, real or even hidden fee`s, bank history, prices of mastercard/visa, etc etc

http://tech.co/wb21-sets-records-for-the-digital-banking-industry-what-this-means-for-alternative-banking-2016-06#.V0_U91O5Muc.twitter (http://tech.co/wb21-sets-records-for-the-digital-banking-industry-what-this-means-for-alternative-banking-2016-06#.V0_U91O5Muc.twitter)

I'm calling them out on that. Looking at their past tweets, it looks a lot like they're buying followers, retweets and likes; some tweets will have 1 RT and 1 like while the next one has 1.8K RTs and 1.6K likes, and then the one after that will have 1.5 RT and then 8 likes. Unless their fan base is incredibly different in behavior, there's something wrong with their Twitter.

As a rule of thumb (there are exceptions), I steer clear of companies that fake their social media accounts. Note: I'm not saying that WB21 is a company that should be avoided.

Looks like they are quite new, its more as internet bank then conventional, they target countries with inflation and with a easy way to open a account there

some interesting view they have on bitcoin and how ppl should use their bank for buying/selling bitcoin, etc
http://www.inc.com/aj-agrawal/what-lies-ahead-for-the-controversial-digital-currency-bitcoin.html (http://www.inc.com/aj-agrawal/what-lies-ahead-for-the-controversial-digital-currency-bitcoin.html)

https://www.private-banking-magazin.de/2-millionen-euro-gastauer-family-office-steigt-bei-fintech-wb21-ein-1446019730/ (https://www.private-banking-magazin.de/2-millionen-euro-gastauer-family-office-steigt-bei-fintech-wb21-ein-1446019730/)

I opened account online process is fast, basic info, prof of identity and address as any other exchange, strange verification process took about 2-3min top

Only "problem is" debit card: Debit Card issuing is currently disabled, Please contact support@wb21.com for further details.
Also under receive payments there is wire transfer and BTC tab, under deposit it say fee is 1% duno if that bitpay fee included or not

So far their e-banking is simple and basic, so far no extra security for login :(
also in my address I entered street name xx/yy and in system its street name xxyy with no dash (Ok my address can be manually edited so sorted the / can not be used so I used "space")

Still no extra security for login is very strange from my point of view

they claim to have 0.5 million+ customers and http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/wb21.com
it makes no sense, they fake at least something
200k+ twitter followers are for sure fake as well

We can`t know, but for sure its true you need 2-3min to open account, also most ppl use that bank for small transactions because fee is only % based... min transaction is 8 euro

I sand them email to add 2 way authentication, because I don`t see any mean of protection, from e-bank you can sand wire transfer to anyone, you only can set up alerts if you balance drop on sms/email

They verified my acct in 2 mins, way too fast I guess. I do not think it is a blatant scam, they have some decent VC funding. But I do not believe in their numbers.

It is the matter of integrity. If WB21 is offering financial related services, integrity is a must. But their social media following looks dubious and it raises doubts. I won't trust my money on organisations that have integrity issues.

Facebook looks like being liked on Fiverr as well.
They are from Zug. Probably not coincidence that Zug approved bitcoin as payment. For sure prematurely. Those companies and this approach does more bad than good for btc.

what are the tax implications of paying for things using wb21 direct bank transfer? are you paying in bitcoins or cash?

for example, in my country if I convert btc into cash to pay for a car, I pay capital gains tax when I convert the bitcoin into cash, but if I pay for the car by depositing bitcoins into wb21 first, then doing a wb21 bank transfer to the car dealer, have I paid for the car in cash or bitcoins? if I've paid in cash I don't pay capital gains tax on the bitcoins anymore

is wb21 a way to pay for everything using bitcoins via a bank transfer? if that's the case I think wb21 will be a game changing tech. in my country paying for stuff using bitcoins is taxed like a barter transaction

Do we get a real SEPA account or just the same account for everyone, with a "tracking" code to know which user the transfer is for?

Since the OP said :


I think you will get a personal IBAN.

Yes, I confirm that the IBAN is personal.

You dont know who is behind this bank ? Well let me tell you who is behind . He's name is Michael Gastauer and he is a scammer ( fraudster ) according to wikipedia:

"Michael Gastauer is a convicted conman and white collar criminal and was sentenced to 18 months prison in 2010 in Zürich, Switzerland, in connection with commercial fraud related to G&S Vermögensverwaltung GmbH. [5] [6] Contrary to the facts, (prison sentence for Mr. Gastauer and bankruptcy of G&S Vermögensverwaltung GmbH [7]), Michael Gastauer claims that "after five years of steady growth, the business reached a mid 8-digit valuation based on over CHF 1 Billion AUM, and was sold to a Swiss Investment firm."

I have opened an account with them too. After 1 min verification , my account was good to go .. I sent them my ID and proof of address . Verification took place too fast ..way too fast for a BIG company with 500.000 clients and growing :)

There are many things that are not normal with WB21 .. Too many followers on facebook , twitter and so on . I guess they bought some visitors

Their ALEXA rank and traffic was build with bought clicks probably from PTC sites. Visitors showed up on ALEXA are from US and INDIA. What about others ? What about Europe ? Wb21 claims to be a swiss/german established company .. so ...where are the europeans ???

If they have 500.000 clients why we dont see one with a VISA or MASTERCARD issued from their side? Why there is nobody out there posting pro/good things about them ?

Everything is fake ! wb21.com is a scam site BEWARE !!! Michael Gastauer is a scam artist . He did it once in Germany and now will do an international scam bigger then the first one .

There isn't right now:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Gastauer

Anyway, the wikipedia itself isn't a valid source, you need to show/link the sources of your claim.

Have you made your bitcointalk account only to write this?

While this doesn't make wb21 a secure service, your claims are still baseless.

is there a place where i can buy bitcoins with a sepatransfer from wb21?
as far as i know there is just the company "wb21" in the sender name on outgoing transactions via sepa.
but most exchangers want to have the same name in the sender field as the accountholders name at the exchange...
any ideas?

thx

another question: can anyone purchase a debit card on wb21?

Debit card are disabled now. I don't know the reason.

I opened an account with them and made a small SEPA transference to a German bank as per their instructions. The transference was returned. Upon inquiry they informed me they had changed their bank. I made a second attempt to their new German bank and the money did arrive and was credited pretty fast.

I used the money to buy Bitcoin with XAPO, they do have an account with WB21 and you only have to make an ATAP (account to account payment) which is instant. The purchased bitcoin amount was credited into my XAPO wallet pretty fast.

This was last week and now they seem to have changed banks again, this time out of Germany and into Hong Kong. No more SEPA and no more IBANs, not sure if this is good or bad, heard that Hong Kong has began to resist the Empire. No direct information from them to customers informing about the change which is strange albeit coherent with the content of their site which really also does not tell you anything about them.

They did replied to an inquiry I sent stating they hope to start issuing debit cards again this month. If XAPO mantains its relationship with them its really no big deal since XAPO does provide a debit card (outrageously expensive to use).

I checked the Wikipedia article mentioned in the thread, namely the "Talk" section at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Michael_Gastauer which raises additional questions.

Not sure exactly what to think, I would love this to be a real project and not a scam (there are others initiatives similar to this one like Worldcore, but they do seem to be more expensive). I added WB21 and now also Michael Gastauer to my Google alerts...

One major weakness of all these bank alternatives is that the "formal" account is not in your name so you cannot link say, a PayPal or Amazon account to withdraw money, since they require you to be the beneficiary and do not provide fields to input the required references to identify your sub-account within the system.

please pay attention to the next both alerts:

https://ftalphaville.ft.com/2016/10/18/2177180/the-founder-of-digital-bank-wb21-was-previously-sued-for-allegedly-stealing-millions-of-dollars/

http://theheureka.com/wb21-founder-has-history-of-fraud

if they had a debit card it would be a good idea ( even with the risk )  ... Now it is something not usefull , as you can't withdraw money in btc for example...

Shame as this could have been a great service, I will be avoiding though

Well is this a working service because all I see here is a bitter sweet reaction from different members of the forum? Anyway this service should have sky rocked as it provides a way to buy bitcoins for most users out there!

I have this question as well. For example, can a WB21 user send fiat from WB21 account to Kraken (SEPA transfer)? Or will it fail (personal IDs must match)?

That explains it then. An insolvent and convicted fraudster who created a bank with a doctored valuation.

When a bank KYC-verifies and validates you online within minutes without the usual cautious requirements, there must be something fishy about them. A legitimate bank, especially one in the EU, will make you go through hoops and fire before they allow you to hold an account with them. It is the primary mandate of every bank: all beneficial owners of accounts must be properly identified. Not doing so would expose the bank to significant reputational, regulatory and other risks. A bank that bypasses this core requirement is a phony bank.

I have to admit the site is well constructed, complete with SSL encryption and mobile banking apps on the iOS and android app stores. This is a very sinister and sophisticated scam with so much criminal energy put into it. No detail spared in presentation and design. Bitcoin accepted too. How convenient.

And this:

+864000233151
+74993466392
+27875508787
+15873330277
+6562484658
+555139377888
+61885208218
 support@wb21.com
WB21 Pte. Ltd. | 80 Raffles Place | UOB Plaza 1 | Singapore 048624

Probably virtual numbers which diverts to one single person's cellphone. That's a prestigious address in Singapore's most expensive CBD location. Raffles Place. What's funny is that "WB21" is not listed on the property's directory:

http://www.estate.sg/uob-plaza.html

But media reports about their acceptance by MAS Singapore:

http://bit.ly/2eQ5xaL
http://bit.ly/2wxJrS6

Shady shady...

Hello, Team.
Again the same trouble with your bank. Now our company got 2 suspending payments.
Support does not reply for 2 missed transactions more than 30 days.
Reference ID Missing Payments are: WT1903188801859
WT1603188801850
I had to make a call to support center, but still no result. The last of transaction is suspended for more than month :disappointed:
How you gonna solve that?

Dear Sirs!

I have transferred 24.000 EURO from my account opened in WB21 in the name of my counterparty's account opened with FIO BANKA, A.S.

The transaction I.D. is 7506201809041019375, date of payment is April 09, 2018. The exact time of payment is 10:19:36

However, my counterparty has not received the payment. FIO BANKA, A.S. has commented that it even has not seen this transaction.

I have been trying to contact WB21 since the moment of payment, but they refuse to answer my calls and E-Mails, thus I have not received any comment regarding the situation.

Therefore, please BE AWARE:

THE WB21 HAS NOT PERFORMED MY TRANSACTION, REFUSES TO RETURN MY MONEY AND DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY INFORMATION!!!

EVERYTHING SHOWS THAT THEY ARE FRAUDSTERS THAT HAVE STOLEN MY MONEY!!!

WB21, if you are reading this - return my money ASAP or I will be forced to complain to regulatory body!

Please contact me ASAP!

Question,

WB21 has now been rebranded to Black Banx, even though it's rebranded you guys think it's still not trustworthy?