According to a report by CoinDesk on January 2, Deep Tide TechFlow states that Garanti BBVA Kripto, the Turkish cryptocurrency custody platform under Spain's second-largest bank BBVA, is about to open cryptocurrency trading services to the public. Abel Peña, Chief Sales Officer of the Spanish cryptocurrency exchange Bit2Me, revealed that with the full effect of the EU MiCA legislation on December 30, over 50 European financial institutions have completed access and are expected to roll out cryptocurrency services in the first quarter of 2025.
As the 43rd largest bank in the world, BBVA had total assets of $857 billion in 2023. Garanti BBVA Kripto has started piloting cryptocurrency trading services from January 2024. Peña stated that the enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies in the European banking sector is primarily driven by three factors: regulatory certainty brought by the MiCA legislation, the supportive stance on cryptocurrencies following Trump's election as U.S. president, and the immense success of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF that raised $35 billion within a year.