BaFin Denies Bitcoin.de a MiCA License: Trading Halted Since June, What Happens to Client Coins

What BaFin decided

Bitcoin Group SE, the platform's parent company, announced the decision on October 6 in a mandatory disclosure to investors. Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) refused its subsidiary bank, futurum bank AG, authorization to operate as a crypto-asset service provider under the EU's MiCA regulation. The bank filed its application on June 27, 2025, and the review took more than 15 months.

The refusal also ended the regulator's tolerance. Until now the bank had been allowed to keep running its crypto business while the application was under review, and that option is now gone. Neither BaFin nor the company has publicly disclosed the reasons for the refusal.

Bitcoin.de has been operating for more than ten years, and according to the company, the platform has more than 1.1 million registered users. It is one of Germany's best-known crypto platforms: for many years it worked as a marketplace where people bought and sold bitcoin directly with each other.

What Bitcoin.de customers should do right now

The key message from the company: the bank continues to hold client assets, and all client claims remain fully intact. futurum bank will keep holding the assets until another regulated custodian takes them over. The bank promises to announce on the Bitcoin.de website what clients need to do and when. The announcements about the BaFin decision say nothing specific about withdrawing coins to your own wallets, so it is best to ask support about your balance.

Until things are clearer, a few simple steps make sense:

1. Save your exports. Download your trade history, statements and balances for each coin, with dates. In Germany, profits from selling crypto you have held for more than a year are tax-free, but it is up to the owner to prove the purchase date and price. If the platform is relaunched on a new system, the old history may be harder to retrieve.
2. Follow only official channels. Any platform halt attracts scammers: emails and websites offering “urgent withdrawal from Bitcoin.de” start to appear. Don't enter your password or connect a wallet through links in emails, and type the site address yourself.
3. Get your own wallet ready. Once withdrawals open, it is better to move your coins to an address whose keys only you hold. Write down the seed phrase in advance and keep it offline.
4. Ask yourself whether you need a platform account at all. You don't need one to buy or swap: a crypto exchange with no sign-up sends coins straight to your address, so they never sit in someone else's account.

Why a banking license was not enough

futurum bank was already a licensed bank, but in the European Union that is not enough for crypto services. Under MiCA, every company that holds, buys, sells or exchanges crypto for clients in the EU must obtain separate authorization as a crypto-asset service provider. Member states were given a transition period. In Germany, the temporary permission for companies already in business expired on December 31, 2025, and the EU-wide deadline passed on July 1, 2026. After that, as the European regulator ESMA warned, serving EU clients without a MiCA license is against the law.

Bitcoin.de got stuck between two regimes: the old platform has already been switched off, and the new one has not been authorized.

How Bitcoin.de ended up halted

In 2026 the company decided to rebuild the platform. Instead of a marketplace between users, Bitcoin.de was supposed to become a broker with more than 100 cryptocurrencies, coin-to-coin swaps and staking. The launch was planned for the end of June, but without a MiCA license it was postponed.

• June 12: trading on Bitcoin.de was almost completely halted.
• In August the company said it had moved client assets to a new custody infrastructure and switched off the old trading system. That is why the old platform cannot simply be brought back.
• October 6: BaFin refused the license.

The halt hit the company's finances hard. In the first half of 2026, Bitcoin Group's revenue came to €1.59 million, and EBITDA fell to minus €3.25 million. The company expects full-year revenue to keep declining. On the day of the announcement, Bitcoin Group shares fell by about 3–5%.

What comes next: three paths

Bitcoin Group names three options:

1. An objection. The bank can challenge the decision within one month of official notification.
2. A new application. It can also apply for a MiCA license again later; the company has not given any timeline.
3. Operating through regulated companies. Bitcoin.de is preparing to work with two German companies under regulatory supervision: one will handle trading, the other custody. Clients should be able to return to trading in the updated app “in the coming weeks,” but there is no firm date.

CEO Moritz Eckert called the refusal a blow but said the company had prepared for this outcome. In his words, there is now only one priority: launching the alternative operating model.

What the Bitcoin.de story teaches

Bitcoin.de clients broke no rules and, according to the company, have lost nothing. Yet for four months now they have not been able to manage their coins the way they are used to, and they don't know when they will. That is how any platform works when your coins sit in its account: a license, an audit, a move to a new system or a bankruptcy stops every client at once.

A regulator's decision about someone else's platform does not touch coins in your own wallet. We explained the two ways of storing crypto in our article on how a custodial wallet differs from a non-custodial one. A trading platform is convenient for active trading, but savings are safer in your own hands. If you save in dollars rather than bitcoin, it is easier to exchange bitcoin to USDT TRC20 without registration and keep the stablecoin on your own address.

How to swap crypto without an exchange account

With VertEXchange, you don't need an account, email or phone number to swap. You pick a pair, for example to buy bitcoin with USDT TRC20, paste your wallet address and see the rate and the final amount before you send anything. Coins arrive straight at your address: VertEXchange doesn't hold them, so there is nothing to freeze in an account.

• A fixed rate holds for about 15 minutes, so the amount won't drift while your transfer is being confirmed.
• You can add a refund address: the coins go back there if the swap doesn't go through.
• Personal fields of an order are deleted 24 hours after it completes, and your exchange history stays only in your browser.
• Support chat is available on every page, and questions are resolved using your exchange code.

If you still have ether left after withdrawing from the platform but would rather save in bitcoin, you can exchange ETH to BTC straight to your own wallet.

FAQ

Why did BaFin refuse Bitcoin.de a license?

Neither the regulator nor the company has disclosed the reasons publicly. What is known is that futurum bank AG, which runs Bitcoin.de, applied for a MiCA license on June 27, 2025, and was refused on October 6, 2026.

Have Bitcoin.de clients lost their coins?

According to the company, no. futurum bank continues to hold client assets until another regulated custodian takes them over, and client rights remain fully intact.

When will Bitcoin.de work again?

There is no firm date. The company wants to bring back trading through two regulated German companies “in the coming weeks.” The bank can also challenge the refusal or file a new application.

Can I withdraw coins from Bitcoin.de now?

The announcements about the BaFin decision don't say so directly. The bank promises to announce on the Bitcoin.de website what clients need to do and when, and it is best to ask support about your own balance.

Since when has trading on Bitcoin.de been halted?

Trading has been almost completely halted since June 12, 2026, when the launch of the new brokerage platform was postponed because of the license.

What is a MiCA license and who needs one?

MiCA is the European Union's regulation on markets in crypto-assets. A company that holds, sells or exchanges crypto for clients in the EU must obtain authorization under it as a crypto-asset service provider. The transition period in the EU ended on July 1, 2026, and in Germany even earlier, on December 31, 2025.