Tradias, the digital assets arm of the German-licensed and regulated Bankhaus Scheich, has received a securities trading bank license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). In addition, Tradias just completed a Series A round of funding.
Tradias had leveraged Bankhaus Scheich’s BaFin license previously.
Tradias heading out on its own?
Tradias hinted broadly in the announcement of its license that it had expansion plans. Tradias CEO Michael Reinhard said the license would “open a new chapter of accelerated growth and solidify our position as a leading regulated player in the digital assets space." The announcement continued:
“With our new status as a licensed securities trading bank and strengthened equity base, we will drive our European expansion in 2025, upgrade our product offering, and continue to innovate in the fast-evolving world of digital assets.”
Bankhaus Scheich created Tradias in 2020 as an over-the-counter trading platform for cryptocurrencies and security tokens and a market maker providing crypto loans and liquidity services.
The firm did not provide any information about its funding round, aside from calling it “successful” and saying it has a “strong balance sheet.” Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm DWS Group was reportedly interested in investing in tradias in 2023.
Bloomberg reported that the Series A funding came “mainly from family offices as well as from wealthy private investors from the German-speaking world” and the fresh money would allow it to increase its staff size from 90 to 100 by yearend.
Related: German banks slowly adopt crypto, mostly for institutional investors
Active in Germany
Bankhaus Scheich is one of three institutional liquidity providers for the regulated Boerse Stuttgart exchange. It is the second-largest exchange in Germany and earlier in October participated in testing secondary market transactions using blockchain technology with the European Central Bank and six German banks.
Source: BTC Echo
Bankhaus Scheich cooperated with German prosecutors in the state of Hesse to sell seized Bitcoin (BTC) earlier in 2024.
Tradias partnered in 2023 with securities processor Deutsche WertpapierService Bank (Dwpbank) on its wpNex platform that offers Bitcoin to account holders at the 1,200 banks that Dwpbank serves.
Magazine: What Solana’s critics get right… and what they get wrong