With further cryptocurrencies coming in the next months, Austrian N26 clients will be the first to have access to almost 100 cryptocurrencies through the bank’s app.
Some of the bank’s customers will have access to up to 200 cryptocurrencies for trade, including bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Cardano’s ADA, and XRP, thanks to the Berlin-based N26’s.
Despite its value, the $9 billion European digital bank hasn’t had the best few years.
According to Gilles BianRosa, chief product officer at N26, the bank is only providing cryptocurrency trading as a “wealth-building option,” which means consumers may buy and sell tokens but cannot move the assets to other digital wallets.
The bank’s platform is a “non-anonymous crypto trading system,” according to BianRosa, who also noted that it has “strict eligibility criteria” in addition to the bank’s current know-your-customer requirements for onboarding customers.
As of now, BianRosa added, “We are concentrated on launching the product in Austria and will take into account comments from this for our phased launch in other regions.”
The bank is utilizing Bitpanda’s White Label product, which allows fintech or banks to use Bitpanda’s 24/7 trading platform with hundreds of cryptocurrencies.
An earlier report this month said that N26 planned to acquire Bitpanda in 2020, just before the business was valued at $4.1 billion and dubbed a fintech unicorn.
N26 co-founder Max Tayenthal was described in a Financial Times article from January as feeling that the bank pushed to expand worldwide too rapidly and that it had missed the crypto explosion.
N26 claims its goals for cryptocurrency are “long-term” as it joins the space for the first time during a bear market that also saw Bitpanda lay off part of its staff.
According to BianRosa, “We think that cryptocurrencies will remain a significant component of the financial ecosystem.
