Update (July 2 at 11:03 pm UTC): This article has been updated to include comments from KBC Bank.
KBC Bank, one of Belgium’s largest financial institutions, is preparing to allow its customers to invest in cryptocurrencies through its Bolero subsidiary.
Bolero, an online investment platform operated by KBC, will roll out access to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) investments on its platform later this year, KBC confirmed to Cointelegraph.
“An analysis is currently underway to be recognized as a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) in the autumn,” a spokesperson for KBC said.
“Private investors could then have the opportunity to invest directly in Bitcoin and Ether within a trusted framework, with a focus on education, security and regulatory compliance,” they said.
KBC one of the first Belgian banks to embrace crypto
If the rollout proceeds as planned, KBC would become the first major Belgian bank to announce its intention to offer crypto services to retail customers, according to a L’Echo report.
Currently, Belgian customers typically use foreign crypto exchanges like Binance, Coinbase and OKX or crypto-friendly investment apps such as Revolut and N26, the report said.
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KBC’s move comes amid European banks increasingly moving into crypto investment and custody products, with two German banks, Deutsche Bank and Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, reportedly planning to debut crypto offerings in the coming months.
Banking push goes as expected
Spain’s second-largest bank, BBVA, previously said it has been advising its affluent clients to allocate up to 7% of their investment portfolio to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
The ongoing banking push into crypto has been anticipated by some in the industry. In April, executives at major cryptocurrency companies Messari and Sygnum predicted that many banks would be entering crypto in the second half of 2025 amid favorable crypto regulations globally.
In late May, Stripe co-founder and President John Collison said that the company has been in talks with several banking institutions that were highly interested in experimenting with stablecoins.
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