David Edwards
By mid-2026, Germany’s Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, one of the biggest banking groups in Europe, plans to offer cryptocurrency trading services to its 50 million+ clients, signaling a dramatic change in the organization’s position on digital assets.
Dekabank, Sparkassen’s investment division, will spearhead the project via the Sparkasse mobile app, per a Bloomberg report. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which went into effect in December 2024, provides the regulatory foundation for the offering’s development.
The German Savings Banks Association (DSGV) stressed in a statement that cryptocurrencies are still speculative but that the group’s crypto service will offer “reliable access to a regulated crypto offering.” As a result, Sparkassen will not advertise the service and will give customers thorough risk disclosures that include cautions about the possibility of a complete capital loss.
With a network of more than 370 savings banks and more than €2.5 trillion (about $2.9 trillion) in assets under control, Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe has traditionally been cautious when it comes to cryptocurrency. In 2015, the bank banned cryptocurrency transactions and frequently highlighted investor risk and extreme volatility.
But it seems to have changed as a result of the changing environment and increasing institutional momentum. The CEO of ERA Labs, Filipp Bolotov, described the action as “a big step for mainstream adoption,” while Master Ventures founder Kyle Chasse said it demonstrated that “banks are catching up.”
The action is in line with broader patterns of cryptocurrency acceptance in Germany’s banking industry. In September 2024, DZ Bank, the second-biggest bank in the nation, partnered with Boerse Stuttgart Digital to start a crypto service experiment. In partnership with Bitpanda, Germany’s biggest federal bank, Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, started providing institutional customers with crypto custody services last year.
The change reflects a wider attitude among business executives. In April, Eric Trump made the prediction that banks who do not embrace cryptocurrency may become obsolete in ten years. As regulation develops, experts at Paris Blockchain Week, such as Thomas Eichenberger of Sygnum Bank and Eric Turner of Messari, predict that the financial sector will become more involved in cryptocurrency by late 2025.
