Bitcoin.de has kept most trading suspended after Germany’s financial regulator rejected futurum bank AG’s application for authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets rules, forcing the platform to pursue a new model using regulated partners.
Summary
- Bitcoin.de trading remains suspended after BaFin rejected futurum bank’s application for MiCA authorization in Germany.
- Futurum bank can object within one month after formal notification or submit another application later.
- Bitcoin Group plans regulated German partners for trading and custody, targeting a restart within weeks.
- Customer assets remain with futurum bank until transfer to another regulated German custodian, company says.
- Bitcoin Group reported €1.59 million first-half revenue and expects another negative EBITDA year in 2026.
Bitcoin Group SE said on Oct. 6 that BaFin refused the MiCA application submitted by its wholly owned subsidiary futurum bank on June 27, 2025. The licensing process had lasted more than 15 months, while operational trading on Bitcoin.de has largely been suspended since June 12, 2026.
BaFin informed futurum bank that its previous tolerance for providing crypto-asset services no longer applies. The company expects formal service of the decision and can lodge an objection within one month after notification.
Bitcoin Group CEO Moritz Eckert called the decision “a setback for us.” The company said it disagrees with BaFin’s assessment and is reviewing its options, including an objection or a new MiCA application at a later date.
Bitcoin.de now wants regulated partners to restart trading
Instead of waiting for another license application to run its course, futurum bank plans to work with regulated companies based in Germany.
Bitcoin Group said one regulated institution would initially act as the trading counterparty for Bitcoin.de customers, while another regulated German company would hold customer crypto assets.
Neither partner has been named. The company has not announced a firm reopening date, though Eckert said Bitcoin Group is working to restore trading through the rebuilt Bitcoin.de app “within the next few weeks.”
The new model would change the operating structure that Bitcoin Group had been preparing before the BaFin refusal. Futurum bank had expected to run the renewed platform itself after receiving MiCA authorization.
A partner-based setup already exists elsewhere in the European crypto market. In crypto.news coverage of Nexo’s regulated German partner model, Nexo routed custody through Tangany and brokerage services through DLT Finance to keep services available for customers in the European Economic Area.
Bitcoin Group has not said whether its own planned structure will follow the same contractual setup or which services the partners will provide beyond trading and custody.
The MiCA rejection delays a platform overhaul
Bitcoin.de had spent much of 2025 and 2026 rebuilding its business from its older peer-to-peer marketplace model into a more conventional crypto trading platform.
Just one week before the BaFin decision, Bitcoin Group said the new platform, website and mobile application had been technologically completed and passed functional and security testing.
The planned product range includes more than 100 cryptocurrencies, crypto swaps, savings plans and staking. Bitcoin Group previously said transactions would be processed in seconds through a reference account, with investments starting from €1.
Those plans were tied to regulatory approval. The company said on Sept. 29 that the restart of crypto trading remained dependent on completion of the licensing process.
Bitcoin.de originally released its redesigned app and website in June, but the planned trading launch did not proceed as expected while futurum bank waited for BaFin’s decision.
The company had already migrated customer crypto holdings to new custody infrastructure and switched off the old trading system as part of the changeover. Trading activity has remained largely unavailable since June 12.
Bitcoin Group said futurum bank will keep custody of customer assets until they are moved to the planned regulated custodian. It said customer claims remain intact.
BaFin said the implementation was not ready
Bitcoin Group provided more detail on the regulator’s reasoning in a corporate statement released shortly after its mandatory market disclosure.
The company said BaFin considered futurum bank’s current implementation and operational readiness insufficient for authorization. According to the company’s account of the regulator’s position, the progress achievable in the short term was not enough to address the remaining requirements.
Bitcoin Group said work on BaFin’s requested measures was already advanced and maintained that it viewed the situation differently.
BaFin has not published a separate detailed public decision setting out each reason for rejecting futurum bank’s application. The description of the regulator’s reasoning therefore comes from Bitcoin Group’s Oct. 6 statements.
Under MiCA, firms providing covered crypto services need authorization from the relevant national regulator. BaFin’s guidance states that German crypto-asset service providers must meet application requirements covering their organization, operations and compliance with the Digital Operational Resilience Act.
EU rules provided existing firms with a temporary transition period. ESMA states that eligible providers could operate under national arrangements until July 1, 2026, or until their MiCA application was approved or refused, whichever came first under the applicable transition.
Germany has become one of the EU’s largest markets for MiCA-authorized providers. In related crypto.news coverage of Germany’s MiCA licensing lead, the country had 79 authorized crypto-asset service providers by late August, ahead of France and the Netherlands.
Trading delays have already hurt Bitcoin Group’s results
Bitcoin.de’s prolonged relaunch has weighed on Bitcoin Group’s financial performance.
For the first half of 2026, Bitcoin Group reported revenue of €1.59 million, down from €3.78 million during the same period in 2025.
EBITDA fell to a loss of €3.25 million from a €1 million loss a year earlier. Earnings per share came to negative €1.02, compared with negative €0.33 in the first half of 2025.
The company attributed the weaker performance to reduced trading activity, crypto-market conditions and higher spending tied to the platform rebuild and workforce expansion.
Bitcoin Group held €199 million in net crypto assets as of June 30 and reported an equity ratio of 71.8%.
Before BaFin’s rejection, management had already warned that the delayed MiCA approval made customer migration, the platform restart and uptake of products such as staking difficult to forecast. Bitcoin Group expects 2026 revenue to decline from the previous year and forecasts another negative full-year EBITDA.
Bitcoin Group shares finished Oct. 6 at €27.98 on Xetra, down 1.96% for the session, market data showed. The regulatory announcement was released shortly after the regular German trading session.
Futurum bank can still challenge the BaFin decision once formal notification is served. The one-month objection period begins after that notification, not from the date of Bitcoin Group’s Oct. 6 announcement.
A new MiCA application remains another option. For now, the company is prioritizing the partner model and has said details on the new trading counterparty, custodian and Bitcoin.de reopening will be published on the platform’s website once agreements are completed.
