Bank account with free IBAN. Deposits protected by German state guarantee up to € 100,000. Free Mastercard debit card. Free SEPA transfers. ATM withdrawals free worldwide. Integrated wallet and exchange of Bitcoin and Ethereum with 1% commission. Register and open your online account in less than 10 minutes.
It seems incredible, but what I have listed is really all Bitwala's service offers.
To tell the truth, the German bank N26 had been the forerunner in the sector of online bank accounts, which in these days is landing in the USA with its commercial proposal already widely successful in Europe. But, to all the advantages of N26, Bitwala added that of being "crypto-friendly", that is, of allowing users to put in the wallet and carry out the buying and selling of cryptocurrencies, even if for now limited only to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
The "revolution" of this type of service starts from the opening of the account. Those who are used bank bureaucracy will be amazed. Simply connect to the site and fill in the form with your essential data and then make a video call (I suggest you do it from your mobile phone with a good data connection) to be correctly identified and verify your identity document. In 10 minutes you are up and running with a new IBAN (starting with DE) and all the other Bitwala services.
As mentioned, the deposits, managed by SolarisBank, are protected up to 100,000 euros by a German state guarantee, so you can be fairly confident about Bitwala's seriousness.
The Bitcoin wallet is of the "non custodial" type, therefore the account holder is the only person in charge and owner of the private key to access the funds.
The only flaw for now is the fact that the site and the service can only be used in English or German, so you need a minimum of familiarity with one or the other language, especially during the identification video call. For the rest, the site and the app are truly intuitive and easy to use. Among other things, those who sign up these days (I don't know when this promotion will last) also receive a 30 euro bonus!
Personally I am very enthusiastic about Bitwala, but I would be curious to know your opinion that you can leave in the comments below.