European digital bank N26 announced on Tuesday it will expand its crypto trading service gradually over the coming weeks.
Starting with Austria as the first market in 2022, N26 said it would provide the crypto product for customers in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Portugal and Ireland. The service, called N26 Crypto, is set to become available to the clients in these countries over the next six months and will initially include more than 100 digital tokens.
N26’s customers need to complete identity verification and eligibility checks before they can access cryptocurrency trading in the app’s ‘finances’ tab.
The challenger bank, which has more than €6 billion of deposits in customer accounts, also plans to roll out the feature to users in other European markets. It will eventually expand its token offering to almost 200 cryptocurrencies.
Gilles BianRosa, chief product officer at N26, said: “The N26 banking experience has always been built around the customers’ needs, with features that make money management easy. With N26 Crypto we have created a simple, intuitive product that integrates seamlessly into N26′s fully-regulated banking experience where one’s bank balance, savings, and investment portfolio sit side by side – with cryptocurrencies being the first asset class we intend to offer.”
N26 co-founder and Co-CEO, Valentin Stalf said the company wasn’t a latecomer to the crypto rush as it remains a requested and interesting asset class. However, cryptocurrencies were deep in the red throughout 2022 as investors fled the market after FTX’s collapse and also amid fears over higher interest rates and liquidity constraints.
“Market fluctuations aside, cryptocurrencies continue to remain a requested and interesting asset class for investors and a growing part of the financial system. Cryptocurrency trading is often the entrypoint to investing for a new generation of investors who are looking to explore ways to grow their wealth,” added Stalf.
Behind the scenes, N26’s crypto offering is backed by Bitpanda which handles trading and custody for digital assets. Founded in 2014, BitPanda is a retail broker for crypto assets, including more than 30 cryptocurrencies . The company claims to have onboarded more than 2.5 million users and plans to expand into real-world assets to build out a pan-European offering, with the expansion already started in France, Spain and Turkey.
