Germany’s central savings-bank securities provider, DekaBank, has begun offering cryptocurrency trading through participating Sparkassen, giving eligible adult customers access to Bitcoin and four other digital assets through the Sparkasse app.
The service, branded “Krypto – powered by Deka,” went live on Oct. 19. Customers must hold a current account with a participating savings bank and open a Deka crypto account through the app’s investing section, labelled “Anlegen.” According to CryptoSlate, the offering initially covers Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP and Polygon’s POL.
Participating banks and a phased rollout
The service is not automatically available across Germany’s entire Sparkassen network. Each savings bank decides independently whether to provide it, and Deka says the rollout will expand in stages over the coming months.
Deka’s participating-bank directory listed five institutions as of Oct. 20:
- Frankfurter Sparkasse
- Sparkasse Rottal-Inn
- Niederrheinische Sparkasse RheinLippe
- Taunus Sparkasse
- Sparkasse Karlsruhe
Deka and the individual banks have not published figures for crypto accounts opened or customers who have traded. The available information therefore does not show how widely the service has been used since its launch. The introduction follows plans that were reported in June 2025.
For customers, the move places crypto buying and selling inside an established banking app rather than requiring a separate crypto exchange account. However, access remains dependent on a customer’s bank joining the programme.
Fees, custody and transfer restrictions
Deka’s retail pricing sheet charges €0.99 for each purchase or sale. There is no minimum order size, while each transaction is capped at €250,000. The quoted trading price also includes a DekaBank spread applied to a market reference price. Because the pricing sheet does not state the spread numerically, the €0.99 charge alone does not represent the complete cost of a transaction.
The provider also warns that technical problems or maintenance could prevent customers from trading at their preferred time or price.
Deka keeps the crypto assets centrally and holds the private keys for customers in a shared, or omnibus, wallet. This means customers do not directly control the keys. Transfers out are permitted only to addresses belonging to specified crypto-asset service providers, or CASPs. Direct withdrawals to a customer’s own self-custody wallet are not allowed.
The permitted providers named on Deka’s October whitelist are Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH, Tangany GmbH, Börse Stuttgart Digital Custody GmbH and Bullish Europe GmbH. Deka lists custody and permitted outbound delivery as free, while the minimum Bitcoin delivery amount is 0.0001 BTC.
Deka warns that customers could lose their entire crypto holdings. The assets are also outside Germany’s statutory bank-deposit protection scheme, an important distinction from money held as a protected bank deposit.
Current market picture
Moneyiar market data at 11:14 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2026, showed Bitcoin at $83,343.130406142, up 2.29% over 24 hours and down 0.05% over seven days. Bitcoin was ranked first by market capitalisation in the source material.
The same Moneyiar data showed Nexus at $0.0000006829, up 2.69% in 24 hours and down 10.79% over seven days; Comedian at $0.0584055521, up 9.57% and 7.69%, respectively; and Lorenzo Protocol at $0.0369242006, up 5.05% over 24 hours and 4.28% over seven days. The Lorenzo Protocol reading was timestamped Aug. 19, 2026, at 2:59 a.m. +03:30.
