The Austrian subsidiary of European lender Raiffeisen Bank is preparing to allow its clients to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) in the coming months.
After initially announcing its crypto plans in April 2023, Raiffeisen Bank’s Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien (RLB NÖ-Wien) is moving forward with a crypto rollout in collaboration with the Austrian crypto firm Bitpanda.
RLB NÖ-Wien expects 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. Via this cooperation, we plan to offer an attractive digital investment platform early in 2024,” the representative stated, adding:
“We have seen the demand from customers for easy, intuitive, digital investment platforms. Our main intention to take customer-centric decisions has triggered these efforts, which we are excited about bringing to market.”
With the crypto rollout, RLB NÖ-Wien users will gain access to all cryptocurrencies provided by the bank’s partner Bitpanda, the spokesperson said.
Bitpanda Deputy CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad previously told Cointelegraph that Raiffeisen’s crypto offering would support the full range of Bitpanda’s digital asset offerings, which feature more than 2,500 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ether (ETH). The exec also said Raiffeisen was willing to make the crypto trading service available to all customer segments, including retail, private banking and corporate customers.
“As we announced in April, the end goal is to make our offer available to all RLB NÖ-Wien customers. However, the rollout will begin with their customers in Vienna,” a spokesperson for Bitpanda noted.
Related: Top Swiss bank launches Bitcoin and Ether trading with SEBA
Raiffeisen’s move into crypto is another sign of Bitcoin’s growing adoption, with companies like Ferrari starting to accept cryptocurrency as payment in October 2023. Raiffeisen Bank is one of the oldest banks in Europe, with the first Raiffeisen bank launching in Austria’s Mühldorf in 1886. As of 30 June 2023, the Raiffeisen Group had 247 billion Swiss francs ($280 billion) in assets under management and 219 billion CHF ($248 billion) in client loans.
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