Bitwala Is Offering German Citizens Joint Crypto and Fiat Banking Accounts

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German blockchain startup Bitwala has launched
crypto banking in Germany.
After securing €4 million (roughly $4.5 million)
from VC firms Earlybird and Coparion in
September of 2018 to develop a crypto banking
solution, the company has allegedly amassed a
waiting list of 30,000 potential users.
Bitwala's new banking solution, which it claims
was built to "close the gap between crypto and
traditional banking,” was developed in partnership
with local fintech startup SolarisBank, which has
a banking license and is fully regulated by the
German financial regulatory authority Federal
Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the
European Central Bank (ECB).
With the launch of this new banking solution,
users would be able to manage "both Bitcoin and
Euro deposits in one place with the safety and
convenience of a German bank account."
The accounts would also come with the usual
perks that accompany bank accounts like a debit
card, as well as a bitcoin wallet with added
functionality to swap between bitcoin and the
euro freely.
“We built the new account putting our customers
first. No longer do you have to wire your liquidity
to separate exchange accounts with frail fund
protection measures outside of Germany. No
longer do you have to accept excessive fees for
trading. Trading with Bitwala is fast and reliable
and our pricing highly competitive,” Bitwala’s
chief technical officer and co-founder, Ben Jones,
said in a statement.
The announcement didn't give details on the cost
for running the bank account, but a 1 percent fee
will be applied for every bitcoin trade. It also
remains to be seen if other crypto assets will be
included in the future, and the announcement
didn’t specify where the service would source its
pricing data for trading.
All fiat deposits of up to €100,000 are insured by
the German Deposit Guarantee Scheme (DGS). But
while the fiat is protected to a certain degree,
there were no indications on the insurance of the
bitcoin.
Bitwala has begun on-boarding proceedings for
the thousands of users who had pre-registered to
use the service and will be accepting new users
over the coming days.

Source : https://bitcoinmagazine.com/