DekaBank, the securities provider for Germany’s Sparkassen savings banks, launched cryptocurrency trading on October 19, allowing adult customers at participating banks to buy Bitcoin through the Sparkasse app after opening a dedicated Deka crypto account.
The service, branded “Krypto – powered by Deka,” also offers Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Polygon’s POL. Customers need a current account at a participating Sparkasse and can open the crypto account through the app’s “Anlegen,” or investing, section.
As of October 20, Deka’s participating-bank roster includes Frankfurter Sparkasse, Sparkasse Rottal-Inn, Niederrheinische Sparkasse RheinLippe, Taunus Sparkasse, and Sparkasse Karlsruhe. Each Sparkasse decides independently whether to offer the service, and Deka says the rollout will proceed in stages over the coming months.
The launch follows plans first reported in June 2025. Deka’s announcement and bank directory disclose no figures for opened crypto accounts or trading customers, leaving the scale of actual usage unclear.
Bitcoin trading costs and transfer limits
Deka’s retail pricing sheet sets a €0.99 charge per purchase or sale, with no minimum order size and a €250,000 maximum per transaction.
The trading quote also includes a DekaBank spread added to a market reference price. The sheet does not provide a numerical spread rate, so the order fee alone does not establish the full trading cost. Its product page also warns that technical faults and maintenance can prevent customers from buying or selling at their preferred time or price.
Deka’s product page states that it holds customers’ crypto centrally and keeps the private keys on their behalf in a shared, or omnibus, wallet.
Outbound delivery is permitted only to addresses at designated crypto-asset service providers, known as CASPs. Other destination addresses are excluded, preventing direct transfers to a customer’s own self-custody wallet. Deka lists custody and permitted outbound delivery as free.
Deka’s October whitelist names Crypto Finance (Deutschland) GmbH, Tangany GmbH, Börse Stuttgart Digital Custody GmbH, and Bullish Europe GmbH. A separate minimum-delivery table sets the Bitcoin threshold at 0.0001 BTC.
Deka also cautions about possible total loss and notes that crypto holdings are outside statutory bank-deposit protection.
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