Banco Santander SA's online bank Openbank has started offering retail cryptocurrency trading, marking the latest push by a large European financial institution into the asset class.
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Starting Tuesday, the bank will allow its retail clients in Germany to trade Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, Polygon and Cardano, Santander said in a statement. Openbank will expand the number of available tokens over the coming months.
The service will be rolled out to Openbank's customers in Spain in coming weeks, the statement said. Bloomberg News earlier reported on the banking group's plans to offer cryptocurrency trading.
Santander's efforts are the latest example of how European banks are starting to venture more deeply into the digital assets sector, months after the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation was fully implemented. It mirrors developments in the US, where President Donald Trump's vocal support for the industry and new stablecoin legislation have prompted major lenders to ponder issuing such tokens.
Santander also has early-stage plans to offer a stablecoin, Bloomberg reported in May. Stablecoins are typically designed to maintain a constant value against a traditional asset like the dollar. They've risen in popularity over the past year as regulatory frameworks were adopted around the world.
"By incorporating the main cryptocurrencies into our investment platform, we are responding to the demand of some of our customers," Coty de Monteverde, head of crypto at Grupo Santander, said in the statement.
Openbank will charge a fee of 1.49% on trades — with a minimum of €1 ($1.18) per transaction — and no custody fees.
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