DZ Bank Wins MiCA License, Puts Bitcoin In 672 German Banks’ Orbit

DZ Bank confirmed that Germany’s markets watchdog BaFin granted it a MiCA license at the end of December 2025 to run its retail-facing crypto platform “meinKrypto”, turning the country’s second-largest lender into a regulated access point for Bitcoin and other assets across the cooperative banking network. The announcement landed on January 14 as Bitcoin traded around $95,451 over the past 24 hours (+3.7%) with Ether near $3,311 (+5.4%), while Litecoin and Cardano changed hands near $78.93 (+2.8%) and $0.415 (+5.0%) respectively.

MiCA license turns “meinKrypto” into a retail rail

In its press statement, DZ Bank said BaFin approved its “meinKrypto” platform under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), after the supervisor granted authorization in late December 2025.* The bank built meinKrypto as a white-label offering for primary institutions of the cooperative group, which can switch on crypto trading for their own retail clients once they complete a separate MiCA notification with BaFin.

MeinKrypto sits as a wallet module inside the existing VR Banking App used by Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken customers. DZ Bank stresses that the product targets self-directed investors and does not sit inside traditional advisory workflows.* At launch, the bank will offer four assets through participating cooperatives: Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Cardano (ADA).

Custody for these coins will not sit on DZ Bank’s own balance sheet. Boerse Stuttgart Digital provides safekeeping, while EUWAX AG handles execution, according to the same release.* That structure keeps banking, custody and trading roles separated inside a regulated capital markets stack.

The MiCA approval extends work DZ Bank already started on the institutional side. The bank notes that it has held a MiCA permission for institutional crypto settlement and custody since 2024, and now adds a dedicated license for retail trading under the same regime.* The move places DZ Bank among the first large German banking groups to operationalize MiCA with a live, retail-facing product rather than a pilot.

Cooperative banks already primed for crypto demand

DZ Bank acts as central institution for the German Cooperative Financial Network. The BVR, which represents the group, reports 672 local cooperative banks and related institutions in that network, serving more than 30 million customers across Germany.* MeinKrypto gives that entire base a single, regulated crypto rail once each local bank completes its own BaFin notification.

Those local boards already signaled interest. In a 2025 survey of 277 member banks, Genoverband found that 71% of Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken planned to work on implementing the new crypto trading solution that DZ Bank announced for the cooperative sector, up from 54% in a similar survey in 2023.* One third of respondents targeted rollout within five months and another 21% within six to twelve months, a timeline that now intersects directly with the MiCA license going live.

That data matters more than the headline number. It shows boards inside regional German lenders already framed crypto trading as a customer retention issue well before DZ Bank confirmed regulatory clearance. The willingness to move from exploration to implementation now decides how quickly VR Banking App users will see Bitcoin and Ether tabs alongside savings accounts.

DZ Bank also plugs into Qivalis euro stablecoin

The MiCA trading license is only one half of DZ Bank’s digital asset push this week. On January 13, the bank also disclosed that it joined the Qivalis consortium, a pan-European group of banks preparing a regulated euro stablecoin.* DZ Bank entered as the eleventh member alongside names such as BNP Paribas, ING, CaixaBank, DekaBank, KBC, Raiffeisen Bank International, SEB, Danske Bank, UniCredit and Banca Sella, according to the same release and prior statements from consortium members.**

Qivalis, based in the Netherlands, is applying to the Dutch central bank for an e-money institution license and plans to launch a euro stablecoin in the second half of 2026, in line with the MiCA timetable for stablecoin rules.** The project aims for a fully regulated, 1:1 euro-backed token as described on the Qivalis website.*

“We are pleased to welcome DZ Bank as the eleventh member of the consortium. Its participation strengthens our shared effort to build a MiCA-compliant euro stablecoin infrastructure for European companies and consumers,” Qivalis CEO Jan-Oliver Sell stated in DZ Bank’s announcement.*

For DZ Bank, the combination matters. MeinKrypto gives cooperative banks a channel into volatile assets like BTC and ETH, while Qivalis targets a regulated euro on-chain instrument that can sit on the other side of those trades. Together they frame a future where a retail client of a small Volksbank trades Bitcoin in the VR Banking App and later settles invoices or tokenized assets in a consortium-issued euro stablecoin rather than offshore dollar tokens.

MiCA moves from rulebook to production in Europe’s largest economy

ESMA’s MiCA page describes the regulation as the first unified EU rulebook for previously unregulated crypto-assets, with detailed standards on authorization, disclosure and order-book data.* Until now, that framework largely lived in consultation papers and technical standards. DZ Bank’s license shifts part of it into day-to-day retail banking in the bloc’s largest economy.

The build-out also fits a broader regional pattern. German cooperative banks already flagged crypto trading and custody as levers for perceived competence and future readiness in customer surveys.* At the same time, large European institutions joined Qivalis to keep euro payments and settlement inside a European regulatory perimeter rather than rely on dollar stablecoins.*

That combination turns today’s DZ Bank news into more than another “bank offers Bitcoin” headline. MiCA now sits inside a live German retail product, wired into an app that already sits on millions of phones, while the same bank signs onto a pan-EU euro stablecoin that aims to launch as MiCA’s stablecoin chapter bites in 2026.