Banking giant Santander announced on Sept. 16 that its digital subsidiary Openbank has launched cryptocurrency trading for clients in Germany, with Spain set to follow in the coming weeks. Banco Santander is a commercial bank headquartered in Spain and ranks among the world’s largest by market capitalization. In the first half of 2025, it reported €1.3 trillion ($1.54 trillion) in total funds, 176 million customers, 7,700 branches, and 204,000 employees. Openbank stated:
Starting today, the bank will enable customers to buy, sell or hold bitcoin, ether, litecoin, polygon and cardano together with their other investments.
“And all this without having to transfer money to any other platform, as well as enjoying the backing of Santander and the guarantees and investor protection provided by the European Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA),” the bank clarified.
Coty de Monteverde, head of crypto at Grupo Santander, emphasized the strategic importance of the move: “By incorporating the main cryptocurrencies into our investment platform, we are responding to the demand of some of our customers and continue to strengthen a broad range of products and services through an agile, simple technology platform backed by one of the world’s leading financial groups.”
The company also outlined future developments to broaden its crypto offering:
Over the coming months, Openbank will expand its portfolio of available cryptocurrencies and will offer new functionalities such as conversion between different cryptocurrencies.
The pricing for the service is set at 1.49% per transaction with a €1 minimum and no custody fees. In addition to digital assets, Openbank’s current services for German clients include a robo-advisor, access to more than 3,000 stocks, 3,000 funds from 123 asset managers, and more than 2,000 ETFs. It also recently introduced a broker platform with artificial intelligence tools that generate price targets for over 1,000 European and U.S. equities. While critics cite crypto’s volatility and regulatory uncertainties, advocates point to the integration of such assets into established financial institutions like Santander as evidence of their growing mainstream acceptance.
Disclaimer: This article represents only the personal views of the author and does not represent the position and views of this platform. This article is for information sharing only and does not constitute any investment advice to anyone. Any disputes between users and authors are unrelated to this platform. If the articles or images on the webpage involve infringement, please provide relevant proof of rights and identity documents and send an email to support@aicoin.com. The relevant staff of this platform will conduct an investigation.