Spanish financial giant Banco Bilbao Vizkaya Argentalia (BBVA) has received approval from the country's financial regulator to provide its clients with Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) transactions, according to a Reuters report.
This approval is because the cryptographic (MICA)-regulated market is fully effective across the European Union. This approval for the BBVA presents the conclusion of a multi-year process to allow Spanish lenders to be exposed to digital assets.
In 2020, Coindesk reported that BBVA plans to dip the toes into the sector as it has withheld regulatory approval as MICA is not in place yet.
The BBVA initially planned to launch crypto services from Switzerland, not Spain or other EU countries. This is because Switzerland already had a clear regulatory framework for digital assets under the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
In January, BBVA began crypto trading in Türkiye through a local subsidiary.
The BBVA is not the first European bank to enter Crypto. German Deutsche Bank developed an Ethereum rollup with ZKSYNC, providing custody rights at Taurus, and Société Générale's SG-Forge launched Eurostablecoin at XRP Ledger.
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