Share this article
Germany’s Solarisbank Launches Licensed Crypto Brokerage
With its close partnership with Bitstamp, Solarisbank is touting an instant “in-custody” settlement system.
By Ian Allison
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:16 a.m. Published Feb 25, 2021, 7:00 a.m.
Make us preferred on Google
German fintech firm Solarisbank is building on its regulated crypto custody service with a brokerage and trading application programming interface (API).
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
Solarisbank, which provides Sumsung, among other companies, with a range of APIs for digital banking and payments, announced Thursday it will offer fiat-to-crypto trading and instant settlement from within its custody solution.
“We started with custody and now the next step is the brokerage API,” Julian Grigo, managing director at Solarisbank Digital Assets, said in an interview. “Our B2B customers will be able to get a bank account, store crypto and with the brokerage API, they can swap or exchange their fiat money to bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.”
Custody is the first step into crypto for large regulated firms, which has been happening recently with the likes of BNY Mellon and Standard Chartered making announcements. Germany is one of the few places to offer a special crypto custody license via the financial regulator BaFIN. This has driven a hotbed of innovation with firms like Solarisbank and custody provider Finoa leading the pack.
There’s a strong pipeline for crypto services, said Grigo, pointing to non-crypto businesses tapping into the world of digital assets.
“We are building the rails for the institutional or the retail investor,” he said. “We see this in the U.S. with Square, or in the U.K. with Revolut. What’s happening globally is also happening in the German market, and we definitely see this demand.”
Read more: German Bank Launches Digital Assets Unit to Offer Custody Products
Thanks to a close partnership with Luxembourg-based exchange Bitstamp, Solarisbank is touting “in-custody” brokerage and instant settlement. U.K.-based BCB Group (which also works with Bitstamp) offers a similar instant settlement network with banking from ClearBank.
This type of blockchain-enabled instantaneous swapping of crypto and fiat completely avoids the sorts of vagaries seen in the recent case of Robinhood and GameStop.
“It’s quite depressing to see some brokers in the crypto ecosystem copying and repeating this batched delivery of the real assets, like the old T+2 delivery of the stock market into the crypto market,” Gigo said. “But the blockchain never sleeps, and so we have instant settlement within our platform.”
More For You
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
More For You
Barclays invests in stablecoin settlement firm as tokenized infrastructure advances
Ubyx is building a framework to enable tokenized money to move between issuers and institutions, supporting the exchange and redemption of funds.
What to know:
- Barclays has invested in Ubyx, a US startup developing clearing systems for tokenized money, such as tokenized bank deposits and regulated stablecoins.
- Ubyx is building a common settlement framework to enable tokenized money to move between issuers and institutions, supporting the exchange and redemption of tokenized funds at par value.
- The investment signals a growing push among traditional banks, including UBS, PostFinance, and Sygnum Bank, to lay the groundwork for blockchain-based payments that comply with existing financial regulations.
Top Stories
