German dwpbank to offer Bitcoin trading to 1,200 affiliate banks on new platform

Deutsche WertpapierService Bank (dwpbank), which offers securities processing to around 1,200 banks in Germany, is creating a new platform, wpNex, that will offer Bitcoin (BTC) to all of its affiliates’ retail customers in the second half of this year. 

The new service will feature crypto accounts alongside bank customers’ other accounts and will not require additional Know Your Customer procedures, according to local media reports.

Wallet-as-a-service provider Tangany and Bankhaus Scheich’s tradias digital asset trading service will also participate in the new offering. Retail customers will not hold private keys. Dwpbank CEO Heiko Beck said the bank planned to add other cryptocurrencies, digital assets and tokenized securities to the service in the future.

MLB Banking was the first dwpbank affiliate to sign on to the platform and has already performed a transaction on it. MLP Banking account and securities processing head Paul Utzat said in a statement:

“In our MLP customer portal, it is a logical addition to the existing wealth management offering.”

Crypto accounts are linked to euro cash accounts, so transactions can take place without going through a separate payments account.

Related: Almost half of Germans to invest in crypto: Report

Germany has been named one of the world’s most favorable countries for crypto. DZ Bank announced in February that it was adding crypto to its asset management service. DZ Bank is Germany’s second-largest bank by assets and a central institution for a network of bank coops with 8,500 branch offices.

German crypto bank Nuri, however, shut down in November under stress of the crypto bear market. It had half a million customers. On the traditional finance side, Deutsche Bank shares plummeted on March 24 as instability spread among European banks. Deutsche Bank asset management division DWS was reportedly in talks with tradias on investment in the service.

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