Bitwala raises €4m to build blockchain bank account
Bitwala, the German blockchain banking service, has raised more than €4 million in funding to provide a fully regulated blockchain bank account from November.
Coparion has joined Earlybird as a Bitwala investor. This new funding will be used for product development and growth, according to the firm.
For the last one and a half years, Bitwala has been looking into merging traditional banking with cryptocurrencies.
“With our new product we will close the gap between crypto and traditional banking and solve one of the biggest hurdles on the road to mainstream adoption,” says Jörg von Minckwitz, president of Bitwala.
It has teamed up with a partner bank, which remains undisclosed to keep up with technical and regulatory demands.
Users will get a German bank account, provided with Bitwala’s banking partner, which offers SEPA debit and credit transactions, management of recurring payments and a debit card.
More than 30,000 people have signed up to be among the first to be onboarded.
Customers will be able to use their Bitwala account to receive salary payments and pay their rent. A cryptocurrency wallet, which allows cryptocurrency trading with access to instant liquidity, is integrated into the account.
With the new product offering, deposits in current accounts will be protected up to €100,000 under the German deposit protection scheme and supervised by Germany’s banking supervisors BaFin and Bundesbank.
