Bitcoin at Your Own Bank: What Sparkasse & Co. Offer

You can now buy bitcoin at your bank at many German savings banks, cooperative banks and Austrian Raiffeisen banks, but not at all of them, and almost nowhere do you get the bitcoin into your own wallet. As of November 2026: since 19 October 2026 the Sparkassen have been switching on "Krypto powered by Deka" in their app one by one, cooperative banks offer "meinKrypto" in the VR Banking App, in Austria Raiffeisen banks give access to Bitpanda through Mein ELBA, and in Switzerland PostFinance, Zürcher Kantonalbank and Swissquote trade bitcoin. DKB, ING and comdirect only offer securities on bitcoin.

How to buy bitcoin in general, and the routes besides a bank, is covered in Buying bitcoin: the complete guide. This article answers only the question many people ask first: can't I just do this at my own bank?

Why banks are only now offering bitcoin

For years the answer of most German banks was no, at most a certificate in the securities account. Two things changed that.

First, MiCA. The EU regulation on markets in crypto-assets has applied since the end of 2024, and the last transition period expired on 1 July 2026. Since then every provider in the EU needs a licence, and the rules are the same for all. For banks that is a familiar framework: supervision, capital, segregated custody. What MiCA means for you is explained in MiCA and bitcoin.

Second, competition. Neobrokers and bitcoin apps have won mostly younger customers in recent years. Anyone who transfers money to Trade Republic or Bitpanda for bitcoin often puts shares and savings plans there too.

The banks rarely build anything themselves. They use partners: the Sparkassen their DekaBank, the cooperative banks DZ Bank with Boerse Stuttgart Digital, the Austrian Raiffeisen banks Bitpanda, PostFinance Sygnum Bank.

The offers at a glance (as of November 2026)

"Not stated on the product pages" means: we could not verify it. Ask your bank before your first purchase whether and where you can withdraw.

Sparkasse: Krypto powered by Deka

On 19 October 2026 the first five Sparkassen switched on trading in their app. On offer are bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Solana and Polygon. Each Sparkasse decides for itself whether to join. According to the savings bank association, more than 230 Sparkassen, about two thirds, have registered interest. 30 to 40 are to join each month, most of them by mid-2027.

How it works:

• Account: In the Sparkasse app you open a separate crypto account with DekaBank. You don't need a securities account, but you do need a current account at a participating Sparkasse.
• Trading: Your counterparty is DekaBank. It buys through Boerse Stuttgart Digital; you have no relationship with the exchange itself.
• Custody: DekaBank holds the bitcoin and the keys. It has had a MiCA licence from BaFin for this since 2025.
• Costs: €0.99 per purchase or sale. On top comes the spread, the mark-up in the price, which Deka does not state as a figure.
• Withdrawals: Under the contract terms reported by Blocktrainer and BTC-Echo in October 2026, only to addresses of certain regulated crypto service providers. Your own hardware wallet is not provided for as a destination.

There is no advice. The Sparkassen don't actively advertise the service either. If you want to buy, you do it yourself in the app.

Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken: meinKrypto

At the cooperative banks the offer is called "meinKrypto". DZ Bank developed it together with the IT provider Atruvia and received BaFin's MiCA licence for it in January 2026. You can trade bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Cardano, only in the VR Banking App, not in online banking. You must be at least 18.

The coins are held by Boerse Stuttgart Digital Custody GmbH in omnibus wallets. Here too each Volksbank decides for itself. In a sample by cryptoticker.io in August 2026, only 3 of 14 reachable Volksbank websites showed a meinKrypto product page. Since the offer runs in the app, it may still be available at your bank.

Costs are in each individual bank's price and service list. There is no single figure. Whether you can withdraw to your own wallet is not stated on the product pages we checked. Without withdrawals, your only exit is selling for euros.

DKB, ING and comdirect: bitcoin only as a security

As of November 2026, the three big direct banks offer no real bitcoin.

• DKB: "You can't buy cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin directly from us," the bank writes. ETNs in the securities account are possible, also as a savings plan.
• ING Germany: Since February 2026, crypto ETPs from issuers such as 21Shares, Bitwise and VanEck can be traded directly in the Direkt-Depot. Real coins are not available.
• comdirect: Bitcoin only via ETPs and certificates. The Commerzbank subsidiary announced in 2025 that it would launch its own crypto offer for private customers by 2026 at the latest. We could not find a launch by mid-November 2026.

An ETP is a security that tracks the bitcoin price. Physically backed ETPs are backed by real bitcoin held by a custodian for the issuer. But you don't own bitcoin, you own a debt security. Costs, taxes and risks in detail are in Bitcoin ETP or real bitcoin.

Austria: Raiffeisen with Bitpanda

In Austria the Raiffeisen banks take a different route. They build nothing themselves but open access in the Mein ELBA app to Bitpanda, the Vienna crypto broker with a MiCA licence from the FMA. Raiffeisen Niederösterreich-Wien, Raiffeisen Salzburg (since 2026) and Raiffeisen banks in Vorarlberg offer it. Whether all regional banks take part we could not verify.

What matters is what the banks themselves write: Raiffeisen only provides access. Trading and custody are Bitpanda's, and Raiffeisen is not liable for them. You need a Raiffeisen account, must be 18 and live in Austria. Payment comes straight from the Raiffeisen account, and a savings plan is possible from €10. Bitpanda shows you the fee before each purchase. You cannot transfer coins in from other exchanges.

At Bitpanda itself, with a regular Bitpanda account, withdrawals to your own wallet are possible. Whether that also applies to access via Mein ELBA is not stated on the Raiffeisen pages.

Switzerland: PostFinance, Zürcher Kantonalbank, Swissquote

In Switzerland banks have been in the game for longer. The differences lie in the costs and in whether the bitcoin may leave the bank.

PostFinance has offered more than 20 crypto-assets since early 2024, technically delivered with Sygnum Bank. A purchase costs 0.95 %, from $250’000 volume 0.75 % and from $1 million 0.55 %. Custody costs 0.15 % a year. A savings plan is possible from $50. PostFinance does not offer withdrawals to an external wallet.

Zürcher Kantonalbank has traded crypto since September 2024, now bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Chainlink. Purchases are always in US dollars; orders in francs are converted. ZKB holds the keys itself. "It is currently not possible to transfer cryptocurrencies to the bank or have them delivered from the bank," it writes. Fees are in its investment price overview.

Swissquote has traded crypto since 2017 and is the only one of the three that allows withdrawals: a bitcoin transfer to your wallet costs $10.

An overview of all Swiss routes with fees in francs, including bitcoin-only apps, is in Buying bitcoin in Switzerland.

What does bitcoin at your bank cost?

The order fee is the smaller part. The larger part is often in the spread: the bank sells you bitcoin at a price slightly above the exchange price and buys it back slightly below when you sell. Neither Deka nor the cooperative banks state it as a figure.

What can be calculated is the fixed fee. At the Sparkasse it is €0.99 per order, whatever the size.

How one percent more or less in fees adds up over many years of saving can be tested in the savings plan calculator. A comparison of savings plan providers and their fees is in Bitcoin savings plans compared.

Who the bank suits

Your bank suits you if you want to hold bitcoin as a small part of your wealth, don't want another app or account and don't want responsibility for keys. A supervised provider you know removes the biggest hurdle for many. Under MiCA it must hold your coins separately from its own assets.

Your bank doesn't suit you if you want to hold bitcoin yourself for the long term. Without withdrawals to your own wallet you can never move to self-custody without selling first. In Germany that would trigger tax within the first year. Bitcoin that sits only with a provider also can't be inherited, given away or moved without the provider's cooperation. Why your own keys matter for long holding periods is in Storing bitcoin safely.

Taxes: the bank reports, you do the maths

In Germany, bitcoin gains are tax-free after one year, even if the bank holds the coins. Before that they are a private sale under § 23 of the Income Tax Act. Because bitcoin doesn't fall under the flat-rate withholding tax, the bank deducts no tax. You report sales within a year yourself in your tax return. ETPs in a securities account follow their own rules, covered in the ETP article.

New is the EU directive DAC8: since 1 January 2026 crypto providers record their customers' purchases, sales and withdrawals and report them to the tax authorities annually from 2027. That applies to DekaBank just as much as to Bitpanda. Details in DAC8 and CARF.