German cryptocurrency fans now have greater flexibility buying or selling assets. The country’s second-largest stock exchange, Börse Stuttgart Group, has introduced a mobile app for crypto trading.
The company announced the release of the new app on its website yesterday, after having spent a year tweaking it. The new Bison app, which includes an integrated crypto wallet, is available for Android 4.4+ and iOS 9+ devices, allowing users to fund their exchange accounts with fiat, as well as to trade in Bitcoin Core (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Ripple (XRP).
Dr. Ulli Spankowski, the CEO of the Börse Sowa Labs GmbH subsidiary that developed the app, states, “BISON is the first cryptocurrency trading app from a provider in Germany. It enables free-of-charge trading in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and Ripple (XRP).”
To gather support, Bison is launching with no trading fees. Trading will only be offered between 6 AM and 12 AM Central European Time, but Börse indicates that this could change in the future. Users will need to register and submit to Know Your Customer verification procedures, which the exchange indicates will take place by video identification.
The press release further states, “BISON lowers the technical barriers in dealing with the complex world of cryptocurrencies. This also includes safe custody of the acquired cryptocurrencies, so BISON users do not need a crypto wallet. On request, after having bought cryptocurrencies on BISON, users can transfer them into their own wallet.”
Trades will be conducted by a Börse financial services subsidiary, EUWAX AG. Blocknox GmbH, another company subsidiary, will act as the custodian of the digital assets. SolarisBankAG, a German bank, will act as the banking partner for fiat payment processing, as well as offer custodial services for the fiat deposits, which will be protected under Germany’s statutory deposit guarantees.
Bison is currently only available to German customers; however, Börse indicates that it hopes to roll out the app to other countries across Europe at some point later this year.
Spankowski asserts that additional features will be gradually added and states, ““These will include the extension of trading to 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and additional trading functionalities. We will also enable trading in further cryptocurrencies, which will be selected considering criteria such as market capitalisation, customer interest and whether they can be kept in safe custody.”
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