German Banks Move Crypto Trading Into Mainstream for Up to 80 Million Customers

This week's blockchain and crypto roundup: German retail banking is edging into crypto at scale. The country's savings banks and cooperative banks are preparing to offer in-app crypto trading across as many as 80 million customer relationships—51 million tied to around 340 savings banks and 30 million at roughly 700 cooperative banks. The push is taking place against the backdrop of Europe's MiCA framework. DZ Bank received BaFin approval in late 2025 and rolled out its "meinKrypto" service inside the VR banking app in early 2026. Customers can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Cardano, with custody handled via Boerse Stuttgart Digital. DekaBank is building a similar product for the savings banks, starting with Bitcoin and Ethereum. The pivot is notable. In 2023, the savings banks association still described crypto assets as highly speculative. Now, competition for younger customers is reshaping priorities: 38% of respondents in Germany say they would trust their primary bank for crypto, versus 19% who trust specialized platforms. Westerwald Bank CEO Ralf Kölbach warns that banks without an offer risk losing tech-savvy customers. Tax policy is also moving. Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) wants to end Germany's current one-year tax exemption for private crypto gains. Under Section 23 of the Income Tax Act, profits have been tax-free after a holding period of more than one year. The plan would instead treat crypto as capital income and apply a 26.375% tax rate regardless of holding period. The cabinet approved the proposal this week. SPD finance policymaker Jens Behrens argues the goal is to tax cryptocurrencies like stocks and bonds rather than as commodities. Revenue estimates vary widely, ranging from EUR 100 million to EUR 3 billion. Political and legal uncertainty remains: the CDU/CSU has opposed the change so far, the coalition agreement does not cover it, and there are no clear grandfathering rules for existing tax-exempt holdings. Earliest potential start date is 2027. By comparison, Switzerland keeps private crypto capital gains tax-free indefinitely, while applying an annual wealth tax. In the corporate market, Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) sold 3,588 Bitcoin for about USD 216 million—its largest disposal since abandoning its "Never Sell" stance. Executive Chairman Michael Saylor said the sale was driven by quarterly and monthly dividend payments on the company's preferred shares. Annual dividend obligations total roughly USD 1.76 billion, and the STRC dividend was raised to 12%. The sale price averaged about USD 60,000 versus a cost basis near USD 75,476. Strategy now carries an unrealized loss of USD 8.32 billion for Q2 2026, yet still holds 843,775 BTC—around 4% of total supply. JPMorgan, one of Strategy's key creditors, is playing down the market impact of Saylor's sales. A research team led by Managing Director Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou says the bigger structural risk is institutional migration toward permissioned blockchain networks. Public chains such as Ethereum risk being bypassed as real-world asset tokenization—estimated at roughly USD 50 billion—shifts into closed systems. JPMorgan points to initiatives including the BIS Project Agorá with eight central banks, DTCC tokenization efforts in the US, and the FINMA-regulated SIX Digital Exchange. That trend gained a high-profile data point this week as Swift launched a "Shared Ledger", a blockchain-based system. Seventeen major banks across six continents are piloting 24/7 cross-border payments using tokenized deposits. Confirmed participants include Citi, HSBC, UBS, BNP Paribas, and Standard Chartered. The platform runs on Hyperledger Besu and was developed with Consensys. Unlike stablecoins, tokenized deposits represent regulated bank balances and retain features such as deposit insurance and KYC checks. UBS manager Andreas Kubli highlighted interoperability as the key to scaling tokenized deposits beyond single institutions. Swift connects more than 11,500 institutions in over 200 countries. Competition is emerging: a US consortium led by JPMorgan and Bank of America is building a rival network via The Clearing House, targeted for 2027. Want the weekly review in your inbox on Saturdays? Subscribe to the CVJ.CH newsletter.