Banks in Germany Will Start Selling Crypto to Customers Next Year

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Nick Marinoff
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Germany has recently announced that its traditional banks are about to start selling bitcoin on a regular basis.

Germany To Start Selling Crypto

The news is a huge step forward in that traditional financial enterprises and cryptocurrencies have always been at war with each other. Banks deliver centralized tools and services to people. They are controlled by financial agencies and government regulators and prevent bad actors from doing too much damage.

This is all a very good thing, but the main problem with central banks is that they don’t allow everyone to live equally. Their services are not available to everybody, especially those in developing countries or those who don’t have the credit or the financial histories necessary to take advantage of these services.

This is where crypto often comes in. Entities like bitcoin, for example, don’t care about your credit history. They don’t care if you’ve messed up once or twice in the past. That’s not enough to say, “You don’t deserve access to the tools you need to survive.” Cryptocurrencies often provide means of garnering everyday goods to live day-to-day when traditional banks don’t.

So, the fact that centralized banks in a country that hasn’t always been kind to other cryptocurrencies in the past – i.e. Libra – are now going to start selling BTC in 2020 is kind of a big deal.

The selling initiative comes by way of a new (and fourth) European Union (EU) Money Laundering Directive, in which banks are legally able to provide digital currencies to clients and customers. Germany’s parliament known as the Bundestag has already passed the law, and most banks are expected to begin issuing crypto within the next few months. They’ve already been selling stocks and bonds for some time, and crypto will add a whole new level to the investor playing field.

Sven Hildebrandt – head of a German consulting firm called DLC – explained:

Germany is well on its way to becoming a crypto heaven. The German legislator is playing a pioneering role in the regulation of crypto truths.

Even though crypto and banks aren’t always compatible, the news is good in the sense that if banks – which are still widely used by general populations – can provide crypto to more standard customers and introduce them to the notion of digital currencies, this could potentially make them more mainstream.

Not Everybody Is Convinced

However, not everyone thinks this is a good idea. Niels Nauhauser of Baden-Wuerttemberg, comments that banks are likely to become very aggressive in their selling tactics, commenting:

Basically, banks sell a variety of financial products if the commission is right. If they can sell cryptocurrencies and keep them for a fee, they run the risk of returning a total loss to their clients, without them knowing what they are getting into.