From 2020, the sale and custody of Bitcoin will be allowed to all German banks

[aardvark15]

One huge benefit for Bitcoin with this ruling is that it will likely make Bitcoin more accessible to the average person. Many people don’t know how to acquire Bitcoin or altcoins, but in Germany, this may make it easier for everyone to invest.

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[beerlover]

I am not entirely sure if this will be a good thing or a bad thing. I mean we would like the adoption rate to go up and German banks being able to store and even selling bitcoin could potentially increase the adoption. However, should adoption come with the problems of a bank causes as well? We all want adoption, we all hate banks, I don't know how to feel about this.

If I want to just see the good in this I could potentially say that thanks to German banks and the new rules there will be more and more people who will buy bitcoin which would both increase the adoption of purchases/spending of bitcoin, plus the price of bitcoin could increase as well. That being said if I want to see the bad part of it I could totally see banks scamming people with many different methods.

[carlzec]

Very exciting development. Apparently a new order will be established. I think developing countries should act more aggressively. Malta has made a major breakthrough for bitcoin trading. He transferred Binance and similar institutions to his country. Now he will have a new order.

[metalglowd]

This must be one of the positive consequence of adopting European union's recent money laundering directives. It seems as per those directives, German laws now may start supporting cryptos as an asset. Still, European countries are not ready to declare bitcoin as a legal tender like how Japan did some 3 years back itself. I believe Swiss government may do that first among Europe countries.

The German banks have the permission to sell and hold bitcoin but i cannot find any by law that says it will be considered as a legal tender, it might be considered as a commodity and if the government gives the permission to use bitcoin as a legal tender then it will be a huge news for the market and it will reflect in the market and i am still waiting for more news about the recent development.

Don't do things like this will affect to the price of German's currency, i mean since Bitcoin was okay to be traded and German banks granted the permission, those people who want to enter the crypto should sell their cash and put it into BTC. Let say government become neutral about this, but if they suddenly make the law to forbid it, it can cause problem for them who already doing it.

[fillippone]

Might be uncorrelated, by a similar move is happening also in the Hawaii.

Hawaii Introduces Bill Authorizing Banks to Offer Crypto Custody

The Hawaii State Senate has passed the first reading of a bill authorizing banks to hold digital assets in their custody.

The bill was introduced on Jan. 17 by five state senators, including the only Republican member of the Senate, Kurt Fevella. It passed the first reading on Jan. 21 and was then referred to the committees on Judiciary and Commerce, and Consumer Protection and Health on Jan. 23.

The bill specifies the set of provisions which a bank must adhere to in order to provide custodial services for digital assets. Custodial services cover “the safekeeping and management of customer currency and digital assets through the exercise of fiduciary and trust powers under this section as a custodian and includes fund administration and the execution of customer instructions.”

In order for a bank to qualify as a crypto custodian, it has to adhere to certain standards regarding accounting and internal controls, maintain IT best practices, and comply with federal Anti-Money Laundering and Know Your Customer requirements

The virus is spreading!

[Brunus]

When I hear this news I get furious: it's not bullish, it's pure bullshit!
Bitfoin was born to get rid of the power of banks; it doesn't make the slightest sense that a bank decides to "keep" the bitcoin !!!!!
It is just one of the many scams that power invents to block the advance of the crypto.

[fillippone]

When I hear this news I get furious: it's not bullish, it's pure bullshit!
Bitfoin was born to get rid of the power of banks; it doesn't make the slightest sense that a bank decides to "keep" the bitcoin !!!!!
It is just one of the many scams that power invents to block the advance of the crypto.

Disagree with that.
Getting rid of banks and financial sovereignty is an option given to bitcoin era, not a moral imperative.
There are a lot of subjects (read: institutional investors, who simply cannot hold their own bitcoins-they don’t even hold their traditional financial assets)

[criza]

Either way, it may or may not receive the attention and traction it needs to get a boost, considering that fiat and banks are still the most trusted combination of people who don't know anything about bitcoin. It will take time, though people would soon realize the that it can work, albeit a slightly absurd way of handling things (banks handling a coin that promotes people to 'be their own bank')

It always in the culture of every people in different country that usually when there is a sudden change to the things they are used to, we could expect that they would not accept it already, it would always take time for the people to understand and adopt to the new trends in the financial system, such as, the integration of crypto currency to their financial transactions. Thus, this mean that in the future we could expect full support from the people after they realized the benefits of using crypto currency.

[fillippone]

So we see someone is starting crypto related services to lure institutional investors:


Boerse Stuttgart Subsidiary Launching Institutional Crypto Custody Services

According to an announcement from the bourse on Tuesday, Blocknox already provides custody for crypto assets on an "escrow basis" and has made the service available to users of Boerse Stuttgart's BISON app and its digital assets exchange, BSDEX.

The firm is now aiming to expand its services outside the group's own offerings, planning to safeguard cryptocurrencies and "other digital assets" for institutional clients such as banks and asset managers.

Very interesting.
They are trying to bootstrap an ecosystem of services starting from the most obvious and basic banking service: safeboxes.
I bet they informed ECB about this and apparently they agreed. This is also something new.

[Averim]

Crypto services from Banks sounds incredible. It is a good think, i am thinking it will be a good option for depositing them, io suppose should be more secure and the money will be ensured

[fiulpro]

I have only one problem here , 
Why are banks even allowed to do that?
People can buy or sell Bitcoins without any middle man , if banks get involved the rates and everything will differ , they will make it way too professional and way too centralized.
Yes it is a great idea because people who are new in crypto wouldn't mind going to the banks and buying , they will trust the system more.
I just hope the government and the banks doesn't do what the government and the banks do here and let it be decentralized.

[fillippone]

I have only one problem here , 
Why are banks even allowed to do that?
People can buy or sell Bitcoins without any middle man , if banks get involved the rates and everything will differ , they will make it way too professional and way too centralized.
Yes it is a great idea because people who are new in crypto wouldn't mind going to the banks and buying , they will trust the system more.
I just hope the government and the banks doesn't do what the government and the banks do here and let it be decentralized.

It's all about choices.
Private investors will have the choice of holding their coins by themselves (financial sovereignity) or use someone else to hold those, in case they trust their banks more than themselves.
There are also institutional investors that, for a variety of reasons, cannot hold the funds for themselves. Many institutional funds, for example, even intraditional funds have depositary banks, where they hold their assets. I can't see why for crypto's this should be different.

[fillippone]

At last something is moving in Germany:

German Neobank Offers Bitcoin Accounts With 4.3% Interest

All 80,000 users of German neobank Bitwala can now purchase, hold and earn interest on Bitcoin (BTC) in their bank accounts thanks to a new partnership with cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network.

According to defiprime.com, Bitwala is the first classic fiat bank to offer interest for holding Bitcoin in their account, with three other DeFi DApps offering similar products. While the DeFi products have higher rates, up to 8.6% per annum, Bitwala is more regulated and offers fiat and cryptocurrency services in 32 European countries under license from leading German bank SolarisBank AG.

Users can buy as little as 30 Euro worth of Bitcoin and hold it in the free Bitcoin Interest Account and receive interest payouts weekly. The Bitcoin in the accounts is lent out through the Celsius Network to ‘trusted partners’. Funds can be converted back to Euros immediately.

Adding gasoline to the fire:

In a statement, Bitwala CEO Ben Jones referred to the Bitcoin halving as a reminder that “state money (fiat) cannot be inflated eternally”:
"At this time, more and more people trust in Bitcoin. Bitwala is the everyday bridge to it. We are now partnering with Celsius Network, the world's leading provider of crypto loans, so that our customers can leverage Bitcoin holdings wherever they are”

Direct link to the bank
https://www.bitwala.com/bank-account/

Crypto wallets included
Our integrated wallets feature provides frictionless access to the crypto market. Seamlessly send and receive bitcoin or ether. With Bitwala, you own your coins as our wallets are non-custodial and secured with private keys.

It is happening.
We saw this coming, we were expecting neobanks from Germany starting to offer this kind of service, only to be beaten by the Italian neobank Hype (Hype is a neobank part of a very historic Italian Group).

Eventually, the integration of cryptocurrencies into traditional banking services is inevitable.

Historically, the first service offered by banks , tracing back to Genoese and later Florentine bankers in the late Middle Ages, was custody, and then evolved into credit.
Exactly what banks are starting to offer today.

In this sense, I also always say that it is not Bitcoin that needs Wall Street, but rather Wall Street that needs Bitcoin.
To stay relevant and not die.

[fillippone]

Finally, a major German Bank is moving in this direction:

Deutsche Bank Plans to Launch a Digital Asset Custody Platform for Institutional Clients

Deutsche Bank is planning to present its minimum viable product (MVP) for a digital asset custody platform aimed at institutional clients this year, according to a report by the World Economic Forum.

This is the link to the original report.

Also nice to read:

According to the report, Germany's largest banking institution anticipates the tokenization of traditional assets such as private placements, bonds, and real estate "to move more into the mainstream," citing analysts that predict the tokenized asset space to potentially grow to $24 trillion in the future. As more assets are being issued in tokenized form, Deutsche Bank seeks to become the destination of choice when it comes to safeguarding these assets and has completed its proof of concept for a custody platform focused on digital assets.

[fillippone]

Germany is confirming his leading role in crypto legislation in Europe:


'Damn Huge': Germany Opens Up to Institutional Crypto Funds

• New legislation enabling 4,000 Spezialfonds to invest in crypto assets becomes law in Germany on July 1.
• Spezialfonds are favored by institutional investors, and interest in them is now exploding, according to analysts.

This is a sensible approach. Trying to build a favourable legislative framework to attract investments in the most promising field, leaving other jurisdictions lagging behind.

[Lucius]

I’m not sure if I’m going to be wrong if I say that this is finally some good news from Europe, because all the important things mostly happen in the US or China, and this part of the world seems to be pretty reserved towards cryptocurrencies. I read the article and the funds mentioned really hold a fairly large amount of money ($1.8 trillion), and they will be allowed to invest up to 20% in crypto - although the article agrees that the number will be much smaller, but we can still expect tens of billions $ (theoretically hundreds of billions) to enter the crypto market.

I wonder what a woman who doesn't really favor cryptocurrencies will say about this decision (Christine Lagarde)

https://twitter.com/bitcoinmemehub/status/1349575100828442625

[Mauser]

Germany is confirming his leading role in crypto legislation in Europe:


'Damn Huge': Germany Opens Up to Institutional Crypto Funds

• New legislation enabling 4,000 Spezialfonds to invest in crypto assets becomes law in Germany on July 1.
• Spezialfonds are favored by institutional investors, and interest in them is now exploding, according to analysts.

This is a sensible approach. Trying to build a favourable legislative framework to attract investments in the most promising field, leaving other jurisdictions lagging behind.

It's good thar some countries are being more friendly towards crypto currencies than others. Only with competition between countries we can hope they things are getting better for us. The number of investment funds in crypto coins are expected to rise every year. But somehow my bank hasn't recommended any crypto funds. I keep getting recommendations every week for stock and commodity funds. It might be still a long way until even the smaller banks will offer such products.

[Vatimins]

     Indeed this is such a bullish news. The thing about this though is that it is yet to be approved but even so, I personally think that since it has been taken into consideration, then there must be a bug room for acceptance which then would be great for the german people. This news may just boost the use and buyung of Bitcoin in the coming months from now. The only frightening thing about this is they might include strict kyc and apply unreasonable taxes. I just hope they be fair to the german people.

[fillippone]

Crypto landscape is constantly evolving in Germany, who is leading the way in Europe.
Today’s news:

Deutsche Börse Group takes majority stake in Crypto Finance AG

Business rationale is in the article:

Deutsche Börse Group, the German exchange operator, has acquired a majority stake in Swiss fintech firm Crypto Finance AG.

Deutsche Börse will take a two-thirds majority shareholding in the business in exchange for an investment in “a moderate three-digit CHF million range,” according to a press release.

Crypto Finance AG offers crypto trading, storage and investment tools in over 200 digital assets for institutional and professional clients. The Zug-based business is regulated by The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), the Swiss regulator.

Through the acquisition, Deutsche Börse aims to extend its digital assets capabilities by providing a direct entry point for investments, including post-trade services such as custody.

As we see, traditional, legacy operators, or better, the forward looking ones, understand the world is moving on fast, so they need to expand their services to digital assets to stay relevant.
Otherwise they will starve to oblivion.
It is something that makes sense, as there is an economic sense in being an all-around operator for institutional, but it require vision from these legacy subjects.

[AicecreaME]

This is, without any sugarcoating a good news all in all. Germany trying to integrate cryptocurrencies into traditional banks will make people believe in the said cryptocurrency more, knowing that the government has just given a green light for such. Either way, it may or may not receive the attention and traction it needs to get a boost, considering that fiat and banks are still the most trusted combination of people who don't know anything about bitcoin. It will take time, though people would soon realize the that it can work, albeit a slightly absurd way of handling things (banks handling a coin that promotes people to 'be their own bank')

I agree. It's another mission unlocked for bitcoin if ever the government of Germany will really accept and give go signal for cryptocurrency to be adopted by the traditional local banks. It will be another stepping stone to mass adoption. This kind of news makes me happy that the world is indeed keeping pace from the technology and innovation. It's nice to know that there are people, organizations, and institutions that are open-minded, knowledgeable, and willing to share the benefits of bitcoin to other people as well. Recently, El Salvador's bold move making bitcoin as a legal tender in their country garnered a lot of attention and inspired pther countries to make the same move.

Hopefully, in the future we can read continuous news and articles regarding this matter. Bitcoin is really the next big thing. I really do believe on its potential. Wishing other people to see it too the way we do.