Sparkassen Begin Phased Crypto Trading Rollout

Germany’s Sparkassen savings banks began a phased rollout of cryptocurrency trading through their banking app on October 19, offering the service initially through five participating institutions. DekaBank operates the product, called Krypto, powered by Deka, and customers can trade Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Polygon through the app. The service is not available across the network at launch. Each savings bank decides independently whether and when to activate it, so customers can use the feature only if their institution has joined. The five initial participants are Frankfurter Sparkasse, Taunus Sparkasse, Sparkasse Karlsruhe, Sparkasse Rottal-Inn and Niederrheinische Sparkasse Rhein-Lippe. Customers must open a dedicated cryptocurrency account with DekaBank in the Sparkasse app before placing trades, but do not need a conventional securities brokerage account. DekaBank’s product information lists a €0.99 charge per order, in addition to a trading spread. The fixed fee is not the full transaction cost, which also depends on the price quoted for each trade. The service is intended for customers making their own investment decisions. The savings banks will not provide...