Germany’s ING Deutschland simply made crypto publicity really feel like shopping for an index fund, indicating the trail Europe is taking in crypto adoption.
Beginning Feb. 2, the financial institution’s 3.2 million brokerage prospects can buy crypto exchange-traded notes with zero order charges above €1,000 and arrange computerized financial savings plans.
Based on the announcement, there are not any trade signups or pockets administration necessities, simply one other checkbox in the identical app the place they purchase equities.
VanEck is supplying 11 crypto ETNs to the channel, overlaying Bitcoin, Ethereum, and several other altcoins.
The transfer issues much less as a result of a significant financial institution has determined that crypto is professional, and extra as a result of it plugs crypto into the distribution infrastructure that already processed 55.2 million securities transactions in 2025.
When the pipes are that broad, even modest adoption percentages translate to billions in routed belongings.
The surge of curiosity from German banks isn’t pushed by a sudden retail crypto growth. It displays the affect of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Belongings regulation, which removes lingering authorized uncertainty and shifts competitors towards distribution, pricing, and person expertise.
That is precisely the place mass-market brokers can overwhelm standalone crypto platforms.
MiCA took full impact on Dec. 30, 2024, with stablecoin and issuer provisions kicking in six months earlier, and the transitional runway for present crypto service suppliers runs by July 2026.
That timeline aligns with a wave of retail financial institution rollouts throughout Spain, Germany, and past, every treating crypto as a product class slightly than a speculative frontier.
Distribution as technique
ING’s brokerage footprint reveals why the ETN route creates leverage that different channels cannot match. The financial institution closed 2025 with €134.6 billion in deposit quantity, up 22% year-over-year, and three.2 million brokerage accounts, up from 2.8 million.
If crypto ETNs seize simply 1% of that deposit quantity, ING would route roughly €1.35 billion into crypto publicity with out requiring prospects to handle non-public keys or navigate trade KYC.
At 3% penetration, the determine reaches €4 billion, and at 5% it approaches €7 billion.
These aren’t predictions, however arithmetic that illustrates how behavioral inertia works within the financial institution’s favor. Clients already belief the interface, already maintain different securities in the identical account, and already perceive how financial savings plans automate accumulation.
Crypto turns into one other asset class toggle slightly than a separate choice tree.
The regulatory wrapper issues as a result of it permits banks to deal with crypto publicity as another listed safety for reporting, execution, and tax functions. That reduces operational friction and compliance ambiguity, making it simpler for danger committees to approve product launches.
ING is not making a crypto guess, it is making a distribution guess, and the underlying asset occurs to be crypto-linked.
Europe’s on-chain exercise helps the view that demand exists and is rising, even when it isn’t at all times seen by conventional finance channels.
Chainalysis information exhibits European transaction volumes recovering to a month-to-month peak of $234 billion in December after a mid-2024 droop, with main markets processing substantial annual volumes.
Russia processed $376.3 billion, the UK $273.2 billion, Germany $219.4 billion, Ukraine $206.3 billion, and France $180.1 billion for the interval from July 2024 by June 2025.
Germany’s volumes grew 54% over that span, a leap Chainalysis attributes partly to clearer implementation dynamics underneath MiCA. The regulation did not create demand, but it surely eliminated the uncertainty that was conserving institutional and retail gamers on the sidelines.
The rollout parade
ING is not pioneering, however slightly becoming a member of a cohort of European banks that determined 2025 was the yr to normalize crypto entry for retail prospects.
Spain’s BBVA launched Bitcoin and Ethereum buying and selling and custody for all retail prospects of authorized age on July 4, 2025, making the service accessible immediately by its banking app with no advisory overlay.
Clients provoke trades themselves, and the financial institution handles custody. Openbank, a part of the Santander group, opened spot crypto buying and selling for German prospects on Sept. 16, 2025, providing Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Polygon, and Cardano with a 1.49% buying and selling payment and a €1 minimal, with plans to broaden to Spain.
CaixaBank launched entry to 2 Bitcoin-linked ETPs from Invesco and WisdomTree on Nov. 5, 2025, distributing them by its digital banking platform and imagin app to a person base the financial institution pegs at 12 million digital banking prospects.
Every rollout follows the same sample: crypto merchandise get slotted into present digital infrastructure, charges are disclosed upfront, and the financial institution’s compliance and custody groups deal with the operational complexity.
The shopper expertise feels extra like shopping for a inventory or ETF than opening a Coinbase account, which lowers the barrier to adoption.
That is the distribution benefit: banks can onboard hundreds of thousands of customers who would by no means navigate an trade independently however will click on a button in an app they already use for invoice funds and mortgage statements.
MiCA’s stablecoin provisions accelerated one other shift that reinforces the regulated-rails thesis.
The European Securities and Markets Authority’s interim register lists 15 e-money token issuers managing 25 single-currency stablecoins, and MiCA compliance stress has successfully excluded Tether’s USDT from EU crypto-asset service-provider contexts.
Circle’s euro-denominated stablecoin, EURC, grew 2,727% between July 2024 and June 2025, per Chainalysis, as compliant issuers stuffed the vacuum.
That choice for regulatory alignment is clear in each institutional and retail conduct, suggesting European customers will gravitate towards merchandise and platforms that function inside the MiCA framework slightly than problem it.
Flows keep sticky
CoinShares‘ weekly funding product circulate information offers a real-time proxy for demand, and the tape exhibits that German flows typically transfer independently of world tendencies, supporting the view that regulated distribution channels drive stickier adoption.
The week of Jan. 19, 2026, noticed $2.17 billion in world inflows, the biggest weekly whole since October 2025, with Germany contributing $63.9 million.
The next week introduced $1.73 billion in outflows, the biggest since mid-November, but Germany nonetheless posted $19.1 million in inflows. The week of Jan. 12 noticed $454 million in world outflows, however Germany recorded $58.9 million in inflows.
That sample of constructive or less-negative flows throughout risk-off durations suggests a distinct investor base than the one driving US ETF volatility. Brokerage-mediated publicity, particularly when packaged as financial savings plans, tends to be stickier as a result of it is typically automated and fewer reactive to short-term worth swings.
Digital asset funding product belongings underneath administration stood at $181.9 billion as of Jan. 9, in response to CoinShares, which incorporates each ETFs and ETNs globally.
The weekly circulate swings between multi-billion inflows and outflows illustrate that macro sensitivity stays excessive. Nonetheless, the German influx resilience means that regulated rail adoption might easy a few of that volatility as distribution broadens.
If ING’s launch converts even a fraction of its depot base into recurring crypto consumers by financial savings plans, it provides a layer of structural demand that does not rely upon worth momentum or influencer narratives.
What’s at stake
The ING rollout and the broader European financial institution parade aren’t about whether or not crypto is “going mainstream,” since that framing assumes crypto was ever separate from mainstream finance.
The true query is who controls the on-ramps and whether or not these on-ramps favor self-custody platforms or regulated intermediaries.
MiCA tilts the taking part in subject towards the latter by making compliance predictable and by giving banks a transparent path to supply crypto merchandise with out navigating a patchwork of nationwide guidelines.
That does not kill decentralized exchanges or self-custody wallets, but it surely does imply the default path for many retail customers will run by establishments they already financial institution with.
If ING’s 3.2 million brokerage prospects undertake crypto ETNs at charges similar to these for different asset courses, the financial institution might route billions into crypto publicity with minimal advertising spend, for the reason that distribution lever is already in place.
Multiply that throughout BBVA, Openbank, CaixaBank, and the following wave of banks prone to observe, and Europe’s regulated rails begin to appear to be the highest-volume channel for retail crypto adoption.
This is not as a result of Europeans love crypto greater than Individuals do, it is as a result of European regulation made it simpler for banks to function.
The pipes are dwell, the charges are aggressive, and the interface is acquainted. What occurs subsequent relies upon much less on crypto’s narrative and extra on whether or not banks can convert deposit relationships into asset allocation defaults.