Striking crypto news from Germany! There, the banking giant Commerzbank has applied for a license to use cryptocurrencies custody to provide services. It is the first bank in the country to apply for such a permit, the German news website reported Börsen Zeitung.
Commerzbank wants to be a bitcoin custodian, and maybe more
Commerzbank is a large German bank with 18 million customers and more than 46,000 employees. In 2021, it saw sales of €8.5 billion. In short, by no means a small player in the financial world. And now the bank also wants to prepare for the financial world of the future.
A spokesperson told Börsen-Zeitung: “Commerzbank has applied for a crypto depository license in the first quarter of 2022.” This makes it the first major German bank to try to obtain such a license from the German financial regulator BaFin.
Since 2020, companies wishing to offer cryptocurrency services in Germany must be licensed. With the license, these companies are allowed to offer custody services, which means that customers can, for example, store their bitcoins (BTC) at the bank. The bank could also launch an exchange platform, similar to the Dutch crypto trading platform Bitvavo.
Reportedly, only a few German companies have yet obtained the license, including the German subsidiary of Coinbase. However, the regulator states that it still has 25 applications pending. So the crypto sector is slowly but surely taking off in Germany.
Investment funds were already allowed to buy bitcoin
It is certainly not the first crypto news from Germany. Last year it was announced that so-called ‘Special Funds’ may invest in crypto. This became possible after new legislation was introduced by the Bundestag.
In addition, there are a lot of Bitcoin nodes to be found in the country. These are computers that participate in the Bitcoin network. In 2021, there were even more nodes in Germany than in the United States. However, that is now other way aroundalthough Germany remains by far the country with the most Bitcoin nodes in Europe.