BBVA officially launched its cryptocurrency trading and custody service for Bitcoin and Ether on July 4 for its Spanish retail clients.
Spain’s second-largest bank rolled out the crypto service in recent weeks, offering its retail clients the ability to buy, sell, trade and hold Bitcoin and ETH from within the BBVA mobile app after filing its disclosure with the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).
BBVA has become the latest of a flurry of European financial services firms to offer crypto services over the past decade, joining the likes of Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Santander.
The implementation of the Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation last year has only strengthened the European crypto market place.BBVA confirmed it will not provide investment advice on its crypto assets available, and access to the service will be exclusively customer-initiated through the app in accordance to complying with MiCA guidelines.
“We want to make it easier for our retail customers in Spain to invest in crypto-assets, through a simple and easy-to-access digital solution on their cell phone,” said Gonzalo Rodríguez, Head of Retail Banking for Spain.
“Our goal is to support them as they explore digital assets, backed by the strength and security of a bank like BBVA.”
The crypto trading service is the latest digital asset offering BBVA has rolled out in Europe in recent years. In 2021, the bank launched a Bitcoin trading desk and custody service in Switzerland for private banking clients, which includes ETH and USDC.
Garanti BBVA – BBVA’s Turkey-facing bank – launched in 2023 a separate crypto-focused entity to enable a wide range of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, ETH, XRP, and AVAX – to become available and act as a support service for its customers.
“Mirroring BBVA’s leadership in digitisation and innovation, we are continuing to grow our digital assets business, both with new assets (crypto or stablecoins) and with traditional assets in tokenized form (bonds, funds),” added Francisco Maroto, Head of Digital Assets at BBVA.
“Our aim is to offer the best investment and transaction-based solutions to our customers.”
Europe now the crypto leader?
BBVA joins a plethora of other European financial institutions to offer some form of crypto service to its customers, whether that be custody, trading or banking.
Patrick Hansen, Senior Director of Policy and Strategy at Circle – the issuer of the USDC stablecoin – revealed in March 2025 there are now up to 55 European banks offering crypto and/or digital asset services.
In comparison to other regions, Europe has more than double crypto friendly banks to Asia’s 24 and North America’s 23.
He stated European banks “have spent years building infrastructure, developing expertise, and securing regulatory approvals” in order to securely roll out crypto services to relevant clients and customers.
The backbone of Europe’s crypto growth was the introduction of MiCA in 2023, coming into effect a year later.
Hansen noted the world’s-first comprehensive crypto regulatory framework created “legal clarity, and, importantly, actively encouraging, not curtailing, competition and innovation in payments”.
While Europe has established itself as a leader in crypto regulation and adoption, if US President Donald Trump continues his push to pass a digital asset bill in the Senate and Congress, the US could soon challenge Europe for its status especially if he delivers on his promise to provide more laxed regulations.
