Crypto Friendly Laws Help Boerse Stuttgart’s App Top 100,000 Users

Published at: April 3, 2020

The cryptocurrency trading app of Germany’s second-largest stock exchange, Boerse Stuttgart, exceeded 100,000 users on March 30 amid increasingly permissive regulations in the country.

The Bison app, which launched on Jan. 31st, 2019, has attracted a six-figure user base in just 14 months.

Bison users grow 40% during Q1 2020

Ulli Spankowski, the chief executive of Boerse Stuttgart Digital Ventures subsidiary and developer of the Bison app, Sowa Lab GmbH, notes that the milestone has been reached amid a 40% growth in users since the start of 2020. 

Boerse Stuttgart’s app supports Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), and Ripple (XRP) trading. Bison plans to soon support Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and roll out a desktop application.

Bison is available to citizens domiciled in the European Economic Area and Switzerland. While most of the apps users are around 37 years old on average, Bison reports that they’ve had user activity from individuals aged from 18 to 91 years old.

New German regulations drive institutional interest

On Jan 1, 2020, Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) passed “new regulatory standards” to align with the European Union’s Fifth Anti Money Laundering Directive (5AMLD).

The new regulations mean businesses dealing with crypto assets are classified as financial services providers under Germany’s Banking Act, and require BaFin’s authorization. The new legislation also allows German banks to offer cryptocurrency products.

The strengthening of Germany’s crypto regulations has sparked the beginnings of a wave of institutional adoption, with 40 German banks filing applications seeking authorization to offer digital asset services by Feb. 7.

Tags
Regulation
Germany
Applications
Related Posts
What the SEC can learn from the German regulator
The United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s chairperson Gary Gensler announced this month that the crypto industry should not escape the purview of the regulator. He highlighted that decentralized finance (DeFi) trading and lending protocols need particular attention when it comes to investor protections. Regulation can extend into a menu of options that covers custody, reporting, counterparty verification and asset classification and issuance. Reports are surfacing that people are waiting with bated breath on how the SEC will regulate the DeFi industry, but Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, also known as BaFin, has found a way to apply existing securities …
Technology / Aug. 12, 2021
Why we need evolutionary, not revolutionary, regulatory initiatives
This July, Luxembourg — the world’s second-largest domicile for investment funds behind the United States — submitted a draft law updating a law from March 1, 2019 that allowed for the registration and transfer of securities by custodians. With this draft law, issuance itself can be based on distributed ledger technology, thereby introducing truly dematerialized DLT or blockchain-based securities. Furthermore, a central “issuance account” keeper (transfer agent) is required to assume responsibility, and the account keeper has to be authorized by any member state of the European Economic Area, which means that non-Luxembourg credit institutions and investment firms can be …
Technology / Sept. 12, 2020
EU regulators reportedly scrutinize Binance over securities law compliance
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s latest product — digital stock tokens representing fractions of equity shares like Tesla and Coinbase — is reportedly being studied by European and British regulators over its possible non-compliance with securities laws. A new report from the Financial Times claims that regulators are concerned the tokens may not provide sufficiently transparent corporate disclosures, specifically an investment prospectus, that would be required if the tokens were judged to be securities. Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, or BaFin, told FT reporters that while it could not comment on the case specifically: “Fundamentally [...] the following applies: if tokens are …
Regulation / April 22, 2021
German government unimpressed by Facebook stablecoin's rebrand
Facebook’s Diem stablecoin, which recently changed its name from Libra, is still failing to impress German regulators. As reported by Reuters, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz voiced his criticism of the project on Monday after a conference between G-7 finance ministers and central bank directors. Scholz called Facebook’s project “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” highlighting that changing its name would not change its fundamentals. According to him, Facebook and the Diem Association have failed to adequately address its regulatory risks. Until that is done, the German government “will not accept its entry into the market.” Before renaming itself, Libra had …
Regulation / Dec. 7, 2020
New Bill in Germany Proposes to Digitize Securities With Blockchain
Federal regulators in Germany are looking to modernize the country’s securities with blockchain technology. On Aug. 11, Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) and the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection (BMJV) introduced a draft bill on blockchain-based digital securities. In the official statement, the authorities outlined that the adoption of digital securities is one of the core aspects of the federal government's blockchain strategy. According to current legislation in Germany, financial instruments that are classified as securities must be secured in a document. Blockchain technology would thus help guarantee liquidity and compliance by providing a replacement for the …
Blockchain / Aug. 13, 2020