DZ Bank, Germany’s second-largest financial institution, has received approval from the country’s financial regulator BaFin to launch its cryptocurrency trading platform after a year of trials.

Dubbed “meinKrypto,” the self-directed crypto investment platform was given the green light to operate under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation framework, the bank said in a Jan. 13 announcement.

DZ Bank serves as the central bank of the German Cooperative Financial Network, which comprises 672 independent local cooperative banks such as Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken.

With the regulatory approval in place, these local institutions will now be able to offer crypto trading services to their retail customers through the meinKrypto platform. However, each of the cooperative banks will need to secure individual MiCAR notifications from BaFin before they are authorized to roll out the service.

The meinKrypto service is a digital wallet integrated within the existing VR Banking App used across the cooperative financial network, allowing customers to invest in cryptocurrencies directly from their banking interface.

At launch, the platform will offer access to four digital assets: Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Cardano (ADA).

Custody of the digital assets will be managed by Boerse Stuttgart Digital, a regulated entity within the Boerse Stuttgart Group. Meanwhile, trading will be executed by EUWAX AG, a Germany-based financial services provider and a wholly owned subsidiary of Boerse Stuttgart GmbH.

Reports of DZ Bank’s intent to enter the retail crypto market first surfaced in early 2024, while pilot programs began in December that year, with Westerwald Bank becoming the first cooperative bank to test the platform before a gradual rollout to a selection of others followed.

DZ Bank’s foray into digital assets can be traced back to November 2023, when the institution launched a crypto custody platform built using infrastructure from Ripple subsidiary Metaco.

German banks warm up to crypto

However, DZ Bank is not the only major player making inroads into Germany’s crypto market. Last year, DekaBank, part of the Sparkassen network, rolled out its own digital asset services, although its offerings are limited exclusively to institutional clients.

LBBW, another prominent institution within the Sparkassen group, announced a partnership with crypto exchange Bitpanda during the second quarter of 2024 to launch digital asset custody services targeting institutional and corporate customers.