Germany's Public Bank Group Plans To Enable Cryptos For Customers, Pilot Crypto Wallet

Germany's most popular group of regional public banks, Sparkassen, is reportedly planning to allow customers to invest in Bitcoin and Ethereum directly from their bank accounts, taking a major step towards cryptocurrency adoption in Europe even as big players like Deutsche Bank hold their horses.

Sparkassen, which sits on $1 trillion+ assets in about 50 million bank accounts, plans to roll out a pilot crypto-based wallet by the end of next year subject to voting by the committees of the individual banks, German language Capital reported, without citing any sources. The group comprises 370 autonomous savings banks and partners.

"A corresponding pilot project should start first with individual savings banks. In the end, each of the around 370 institutes independently decides whether to introduce crypto trading or not. This is a consequence of the regional principle of the savings banks. However, it was said that the banks were already showing interest," Capital reported.

The concept is being prepared by a dedicated team of IT professionals at S-payments, a firm known for building payment solutions for corporate and private sector banking firms. It will be joining in as the lead of the technology required to build the firm.

The project involves the DSV Group, or the Deutsche Sparkassenverlag, which has many subsidiary firms associated with Sparkassen.

If the vision comes to fruition, this could be a huge opportunity for Sparkassen and Europe can witness a massive adoption of cryptocurrencies by 2022 end.

Customers can easily buy or sell BTC or ETH from their savings account which has a significant advantage over U.S.-based Coinbase, which requires users to complete a KYC process first. The relative ease in buying and selling cryptocurrencies coupled with the trust of consumers for the Sparkassen group might change the landscape of cryptocurrency adoption in Europe.