German Neobank N26 to Launch Cryptocurrency Services

After admitting to making a mistake by expanding in the US instead of focusing on crypto services, the co-founder of N26 promised to release digital asset features to its multi-million user base by the end of 2021.

• Founded nearly a decade ago, N26 is a German online bank that expanded into the UK and the US in the past several years as its main goal was to target international clients.
• However, the co-founder and co-chief executive – Max Tayenthal – believes this strategy could have been a mistake.
• In a recent interview with the Financial Times, the executive regretted that his company missed out on the cryptocurrency market boom in the past few years.
• Now, though, N26 has changed its tune as it halted its UK operations last year and plans to close its US services in 2021.

• “Should we have built trading and crypto instead of launching in the US? In hindsight, it might have been a smart idea.” – Tayenthal said.

• As such, N26 is currently developing cryptocurrency trading services and an equities brokerage platform, which should see the light of day by the end of 2021.
• Following the most recent fundraising fund worth more than $800 million, N26’s total valuation now exceeds $8 billion.
• N26’s main competitor in Europe – Revolut – launched crypto trading a few years ago and its valuation is almost three times higher than the German company.