German virtual bank N26 will be launching a crypto trading service. Making its entry into the crypto space, N26 will be kick-starting its service in Austria before rolling it out to other countries over the next six months, according to an announcement made by the bank on 20 October.
The new feature is powered by Bitpanda, a Vienna-headquartered crypto and stock trading app company. Select Austrian customers will be able to access the service called N26 Crypto on the app in a few weeks. The world’s largest and second-largest cryptos, Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) are available on the app for now, in addition to 98 other tokens. The digital bank plans to eventually expand its offering to include over 200 coins.
The move comes in response to “strong local demand” in Austria, a company blog post revealed. Around 40% of N26 users, according to the post, either already actively trade or invest in crypto or expressed interest in doing so.
Speaking about the new service, N26 co-founder and co-CEO Valentin Stalf said, in the same post, that the company sees its new product as an entry point for a new generation of investors who are “looking to explore ways to grow their wealth.”
It is important to remember that the move from the prominent bank, which is estimated to be valued at $9 billion, comes at a time when the crypto market has been pretty bearish. Commenting on this, Stalf pointed out that the launch of the crypto trading service is thus an expression of the faith of major stakeholders in crypto’s longevity.
N26 is surely not the first to offer such a service. In fact, one could even say it is a bit of a latecomer to the crypto rush. Fintech rivals PayPal and Revolut have long offered their users the option of buying and selling digital assets on their platforms. Besides, Visa and Mastercard have also started selling crypto and Web 3.0 services to users.
On the other end of the world, in Brazil, Nubank has been doing so well that it even launched its own token.
