Germany's Sparkassen savings bank group has started offering cryptocurrency trading to retail customers, with the first accounts activated this Monday under a product called "Krypto powered by Deka". The rollout marks a reversal for an institution that abandoned comparable plans in 2022 after internal disagreement over whether crypto assets belonged in a savings bank's product range.
The service is run through DekaBank, the group's central asset manager, using trading infrastructure from Börse Stuttgart. Customers can buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Polygon without needing to open a separate securities deposit account. Each order costs 0.99 euro plus the spread between buy and sell price. DekaBank holds custody of the assets itself, including the private keys.
That custody arrangement comes with limits. Customers do not have direct control of their holdings, and according to the product page, withdrawals are only possible to addresses belonging to certain approved crypto service providers. Transferring coins to a personal hardware wallet is currently excluded.
A gradual rollout to 2027
Not every Sparkasse is switching on the feature at once. More than 230 institutions, roughly two-thirds of the group's total, have signalled intent to introduce the offer, and DekaBank expects to connect 30 to 40 additional institutions per month.
"Each savings bank decides for itself when it will start," said Joachim Schmalzl, a managing board member of the DSGV, the Sparkassen's umbrella association. He added that the group is working toward a broader timeline: "In the first half of 2027 we want to have already connected a large part of the interested savings banks."
From Ponzi comparisons to a cautious launch
The decision follows years of internal resistance. Plans drawn up during the 2021 crypto boom caused significant dispute within the group and were ultimately shelved in the summer of 2022. Helmut Schleweis, then president of the DSGV, had compared Bitcoin to Ponzi schemes.
Schmalzl acknowledged the weight of that history. "We weighed very carefully whether and how a crypto offer fits us," he said. The DSGV continues to classify cryptocurrencies as highly speculative investments and points customers seeking longer-term exposure toward securities and savings plans instead.
The association frames the new offer as narrowly targeted. Access is limited to adult customers who decide independently to trade crypto assets. DSGV spokesperson Stefan Marotzke described the expected user base in similar terms: "It is a small group of adult self-deciders who deliberately opt for cryptocurrencies. These customers generally know what risks they are taking."
With the launch, Sparkassen joins a list of providers already offering crypto trading to German retail customers, including Trade Republic, Revolut, the Volksbanken cooperative network and BW-Bank. For a banking group built on caution and deposit security, the move brings crypto trading into one of the country's most widely used retail banking networks, albeit under tighter custody controls than those offered by self-custodial alternatives.
