Raiffeisenlandesbank will start Bitcoin trading in early 2024
The Austrian subsidiary of European lender Raiffeisen Bank is preparing to allow its customers to trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming months.
After first announcing its crypto plans in April 2023, Raiffeisen Bank Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) is moving forward with its crypto launch in partnership with Austrian crypto company Bitpanda.
RLB NÖ-Wien It is expected to start rolling out crypto trading services in Vienna in the first quarter of 2024, a spokesperson for the bank told Cointelegraph.
“Raiffeisenlandesbank NÖ-Wien has signed a cooperation agreement with Bitpanda. With this cooperation, we plan to offer an attractive digital investment platform in early 2024,” said the representative:
“We've seen customer demand for simple, intuitive, digital investment platforms. Our core mission of making customer-centric decisions has fueled these efforts, and we're excited to bring them to market.”
With the crypto release, users of RLB NÖ-Wien will have access to all cryptocurrencies offered by the bank's partner Bitpanda, the spokesperson said.
Bitpanda Deputy CEO Lucas Inzersdorfer-Konrad previously told Cointelegraph that Raiffeisen's crypto offering will support Bitpanda's entire digital asset offering, which features more than 2,500 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether (ETH). The exec also said that Raiffeisen was willing to make crypto trading services available to all customer segments, including retail, private banking and corporate customers.
“As we announced in April, the ultimate goal is to make the offer available to all RLB NÖ-Wien customers. However, the rollout will begin with their customers in Vienna,” said a Bitpanda spokesperson.
Related: Top Swiss Bank Launches Bitcoin and Ether Trading with SEBA
Raiffeisen's move into crypto is another sign of growing Bitcoin adoption, with companies such as Ferrari set to begin accepting cryptocurrency as payment in October 2023. Raiffeisen Bank is one of the oldest banks in Europe, having been founded in 1886 by the first Raiffeisen bank in Muldorf, Austria. In the year As of June 30, 2023, Raiffeisen Group had 247 billion Swiss francs ($280 billion) in assets under management and 219 billion CHF ($248 billion) in customer loans.
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