Europe’s digital bank startup N26 to expand crypto trading

Late last year, Europe’s digital bank startup N26 made its foray into cryptocurrency last year with the launch of a new crypto trading service called N26 Crypto. Unlike its rival PayPal, the N26′s crypto service does not include support for custodial wallets. Instead, N26 partnered with Bitpanda to handle trading and custody.

Fast forward three months later, N26 announced Tuesday that it’s expanding the list of countries where its customers may trade cryptocurrencies to include those in Germany and Switzerland. N26’s decision comes at a time when crypto investors are moving their digital assets away from exchanges into cold wallets.

Last year, the German challenger bank began offering crypto trading only to customers in Austria. It now plans to gradually roll out the expanded trading over to other countries in the coming weeks.

In an interview last year, N26′s chief product officer Gilles BianRosa said the bank’s crypto brokerage feature allows users to “dip their toes into the water in a way that’s not frothy.” BianRosa added, “Our users are extremely interested in crypto. That interest remains super high, even in a bear market.”

N26 was founded in 2013 by Valentin Stalf and Maximilian Tayenthal to offer mobile banking solutions to customers in the European Union through its subsidiary. Today N26 has more than 5 million customers in 25 markets. To date, N26 has raised more than $1.8 billion from the world’s most established investors, including Insight Venture Partners, GIC, Tencent, Allianz X, Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures, Earlybird Venture Capital, Greyhound Capital, Battery Ventures, and others.

N26 currently has more than 7 million customers in 25 markets. The company also has 10 office locations: Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona, Belgrade, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Vienna, New York, and São Paulo, with over a 1,500-strong team of 80 nationalities based across the globe.