Spain's second-largest bank, BBVA, has received approval from the country's financial regulator to offer bitcoin and ether trading services to its clients in Spain, marking a significant step in the adoption of digital assets by traditional financial institutions.

The approval comes as the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation takes full effect across the bloc, providing a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets.

BBVA plans to launch a new service that will enable customers to securely buy, sell, and manage bitcoin and ether transactions through its mobile app. Initially, the service will be available to a small group of users before being gradually extended to all private customers in Spain over the coming months.

"We want to make it easier for our customers to invest in cryptoassets with a simple, accessible offering available directly from their mobile phones, in a fully digital manner. Our goal is to guide them as they explore this new segment of digital assets, backed by the solvency and security assurances provided by a bank like BBVA," said Gonzalo Rodríguez, head of retail banking in Spain.

A key feature of the new service is that BBVA will utilise its own cryptographic key custody platform, allowing the bank to maintain full control over safeguarding its customers' cryptoassets without relying on third parties. However, the bank will not offer advisory services, and the service will be available solely at the customer's initiative.

The Spanish lender has been researching blockchain technology for over a decade and has already established similar services in other markets. BBVA Switzerland launched bitcoin custody and trading services to all its private banking clients in June 2021, later expanding to include ether and USDC stablecoin. In 2023, the bank's Turkish subsidiary, Garanti BBVA, established a dedicated company to provide cryptoasset custody services for a range of digital currencies.

BBVA joins other European banks entering the cryptocurrency space. Germany's Deutsche Bank is developing an Ethereum rollup with ZKsync and offering custody services with Taurus, while France's Société Générale is launching a euro stablecoin on the XRP Ledger.

The move represents the culmination of a multi-year process for BBVA, which has been working on offering cryptocurrency trading services since 2020, when it initially planned to launch from Switzerland due to the country's clear regulatory framework under the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

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