The Berlin smartphone bank is expanding its product range.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt There was speculation for months, now it’s official: the Berlin smartphone bank N26 is starting to trade in cryptocurrencies. The company announced this on Thursday. For this purpose, N26 will work together with the Viennese crypto trading platform Bitpanda in the future.
“Even though cryptocurrencies have lost value over the past year, they remain a sought-after and attractive asset class for investors and a growing part of the financial system,” said N26 co-founder and co-head Valentin Stalf.
In fact, digital currencies have collapsed massively in recent months. The oldest cybercurrency, Bitcoin, has lost around 72 percent since its all-time high in November last year, as has the second most important digital currency, Ether, over the same period. Stalf is nonetheless convinced that “a new generation of investors” can often start investing by trading in cryptocurrencies.
Bitpanda itself is also aimed at end customers who can trade in cryptocurrencies, stocks or commodities on their own platform. The Viennese company has been offering its technical infrastructure to other companies as a so-called white label solution for about a year. This means that in future N26 customers will also be able to trade in cryptocurrencies directly in the smartphone bank’s app. Bitpanda carries out the trading and stores the coins.
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At the beginning there are about 100 different cryptocurrencies to choose from, in the coming months N26 wants to expand the range to 194 coins. A transaction fee of 1.5 percent applies exclusively for trading in Bitcoin. For all other cryptocurrencies, a fee of 2.5 percent is due. N26 customers with a Premium Membership “Metal” pay slightly lower transaction fees.
Bitpanda still without a Bafin license
But for the time being, the offer is only available to customers in Austria. In Germany, Bitpanda is still waiting for a license from the German financial regulator Bafin. They have been in the process of acquiring these for some time, said Bitpanda co-founder and co-CEO Eric Demuth. According to its own statements, N26 also plans to introduce the crypto trading option “in its core markets” in the next six months. This includes Germany, among others.
For N26, this cooperation is an important step in expanding its own product range. So far, the focus has been on classic banking transactions. According to its own statements, the Berlin smartphone bank has over eight million customers in 24 countries. When asked, an N26 spokeswoman did not want to answer how many of them N26 can now specifically address with the new crypto offering in Austria.
At the end of last year, the Berlin smartphone bank raised 700 million euros in a financing round and was valued at 7.7 billion euros.
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