The Spanish financial giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) obtained approval from the country’s financial regulator to offer Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) to its customers, according to a Reuters report.
Approval comes as the markets of the Crypto-Asets markets (Mica) take full effect in the European Union. This approval from BBVA marks the conclusion of a multi -year process for the Spanish lender to allow its customers to obtain exposure to digital assets.
In 2020, Coindesk reported that BBVA planned to plunge his toes into the sector, pending regulatory approval because mica was not yet in place.
The BBVA initially planned to launch its Crypto services from Switzerland rather than Spain or other EU countries, because Switzerland already had a clear regulatory framework for digital assets under the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma).
In January, BBVA launched Crypto Trading in Türkiye through a local subsidiary.
BBVA is not the first European bank to enter crypto, with the Deutsche Bank into German developing an Ethereum Rollup with Zksync and offering custody with Taurus, Société Générale, SG-Forge, launches a Stablecoin Euro on the XRP Ledger, reported Coindek previously.
