Bitwala Launches Bitcoin Banking on Smartphones

Mobile users can open a German bank account with an integrated bitcoin wallet and trading on their smartphone. Bitwala, Germany’s cryptocurrency flagship, makes this possible with the launch of its new Bitcoin banking app for iOS and Android.

Berlin-based Bitwala enables customers in more than 30 European countries to buy, sell, and store bitcoin. Bitwala is the only banking service presently active in the European Economic Area offering a free current account with a built-in bitcoin wallet and trading. The current accounts are hosted by solarisBank, the Berlin-based tech platform and are supervised by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).

“Our developers have been working hard for months to provide our users with the best app experience possible. We are particularly proud, to have reduced the onboarding time for new customers. Onboarding is now directly integrated into the app. Once you have an account, you can seamlessly integrate your daily banking activities - whether in bitcoin or Euro - into your everyday life,” said Benjamin Jones, Co-founder and Chief Technical Officer of Bitwala.

With the integrated Bitcoin wallet, users can buy and sell bitcoin directly from their bank account. Additionally, the Bitwala wallet features functionalities such as transferring bitcoin between friends and family: users can easily send and receive bitcoin, or request a specific amount of bitcoin via QR code. Transactions in the wallet can be authorised by using biometrics.

“With Bitwala your bitcoin are booked directly on the Blockchain via a multi-signature wallet. This is another way of saying that hacking Bitwala is as useless as breaking the Blockchain itself and that our customers are fully in control of their Bitcoin wallets at all times. Therefore, we are the safest way to buy, sell, and store bitcoin - now even on your smartphone,” said Christoph Iwaniez, Chief Financial Officer at Bitwala.