Bitwala and solarisBank are teaming up to launch Germany's first cryptocurrency bank account.
Bitwala, which began life as a hub for worldwide money transfers using blockchain technology, picked up EUR4 million in funding last month to open up the new cryptobank, which incorporates a built-in bitcoin wallet alongside regular FIAT-based banking services.
The company says it has so far pre-registered 35,000 customers for the upcoming service, which will seek to combine all the features needed for everyday banking in both the traditional and in the crypto world.
The Bitwala bank account will be operated by solarisBank, providing Sepa-compliant debit and credit transactions, management of recurring payments and a debit card.
Trading off the solarisBank banking license, euro funds in the bank accounts will be protected up to EUR100,000 under the German deposit protection guarantee scheme and supervised by BaFin and Bundesbank, Germany’s banking supervisors.
SolarisBank in June set up a 'Blockchain Factory' to offer banking services to companies whose business is directly or indirectly based on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
Peter Grosskopf, co-lead of solarisBank's recently opened Blockchain Factory, says: “The cryptocurrency and blockchain space still has a lot of challenges. Our solarisBank Blockchain Factory will help to build a bridge to the Fiat world by providing banking services as APIs and more crypto specific solutions“