Bitcoin.de: BaFin rejects MiCA licence, what now?

German regulator BaFin has rejected the MiCA application of futurum bank AG, the bank behind the German trading platform Bitcoin.de. Parent company Bitcoin Group SE announced this on 6 October 2026 at 18:03. The platform has more than 1.1 million registered users, and trading has been largely halted since 12 June 2026. According to the reports, you can still withdraw your crypto; euro deposits and trading are not possible.

Bitcoin.de and the BaFin rejection in short

• What was decided: BaFin rejected futurum bank AG’s application for a MiCA authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider (announcement by Bitcoin Group SE, 6 October 2026). This also ends the earlier tolerated status of the bank’s crypto services.
• How long it took: according to Börse Express and wallstreet-online, the application was submitted on 27 June 2025. Up to the rejection, that is 15 months and 9 days.
• Why: according to the company, BaFin found the state of implementation and the progress achievable in the short term insufficient. A detailed reasoning from the regulator itself was not public at the time of writing.
• What it means for your balance: futurum bank keeps holding customers’ crypto assets until they move to another regulated custodian. According to the company, customer claims remain unchanged.
• What is not possible: trading has been largely halted since 12 June 2026 and euro deposits are paused. According to Börse Express and Kryptoszene, withdrawing crypto is possible.
• What the company wants: a regulated German party as trading counterparty and a second institution for custody, without its own MiCA authorisation. Names and a start date are missing.
• The downside: as long as no partner has been named, you cannot check who your counterparty and custodian will be.

What exactly happened?

Bitcoin.de is a German trading platform where users buy and sell bitcoin and other crypto among themselves. It is operated by Bitcoin Group SE, which owns futurum bank AG outright (100%). Under MiCA, that bank needed an authorisation to keep providing crypto services. The MiCA Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2023/1114) requires this authorisation for crypto-asset service providers.

On 6 October 2026, Bitcoin Group SE announced that BaFin had rejected the application. In its statement, the company calls the rejection a setback; chief executive Moritz Eckert says the requested points had already been largely implemented. The company will now study the decision. It can lodge an objection or submit a new application later.

There are 116 days between 12 June and 6 October. At the time of writing, on 27 October 2026, it is 137, and we have not found any report that trading is running again.

What does this mean for your balance and your orders?

The sources describe three things that matter to a customer.

1. Your crypto is still with futurum bank. The bank holds customer assets until they move to an alternative, regulated custodian. When that will happen is not known.
2. Withdrawals are possible, euro deposits are not. According to Börse Express and Kryptoszene, crypto withdrawals are possible and euro deposits are paused. Check this in your own account; we have no access to the platform and only see what the reports say.
3. Trading returns through partners, if it works out. The company wants to resume trading within a few weeks through a renewed app, with a regulated German institution as the customer’s trading counterparty and a second institution for custody. On 6 October the company wrote that the contracts are still being finalised.

What that model changes for you is in the detail. When trading through a partner, Bitcoin.de is no longer the counterparty to your transaction; another institution is. The terms, costs and safeguards that come with that have not been published yet. A register search only helps once the names are known: in our overview of providers with a MiCA authorisation you can then check whether the partner is listed. We explain the difference between an authorisation and a notification in MiCA register: authorised or just notified?.

What changes financially for the platform?

According to BTC-Echo, Bitcoin Group’s revenue fell from 3.78 to 1.59 million euros in the first half of 2026. That is a decline of 57.9% (1.59 ÷ 3.78 = 0.421). According to the same report, the company also expects lower revenue and a negative operating result for the full year. We have not been able to access the half-year figures at the company ourselves; treat this as BTC-Echo’s report.

This is arithmetic about a company, not a verdict on your balance. According to the company’s announcement, your crypto assets are a claim on the custodian, and the security of that claim depends on the custody, not on the parent company’s revenue. How that custody is legally structured is not in the sources.

What does this mean for you as a European investor?

If you have a balance on Bitcoin.de. Check in your account what is possible, and note which amounts and which coins you hold there. If you want your crypto elsewhere, that means withdrawing to an address you control yourself. You can read how to choose a wallet in choosing a crypto wallet. Test with a small amount first and check the address twice; a wrong address cannot be reversed.

If you live in Germany. Bitcoin.de is a German platform. If you want to buy in the meantime, there are other routes, such as a bank. Our article on buying bitcoin at Sparkasse shows the costs of one such route. For every provider you consider, check the authorisation yourself in the ESMA register.

If you live elsewhere in Europe. We found no separate arrangement for customers outside Germany in the sources. If you have an account at Bitcoin.de, check your own account and the platform’s announcements.

Tax. What you have to declare for crypto depends on your country. See crypto tax in Europe. This article does not cover that.

What is not certain yet

• Why BaFin rejected it. The regulator’s reasoning is not public. What is known comes from Bitcoin Group SE, which disagrees with the assessment.
• The objection. The objection period runs for one month from the formal delivery of the decision. According to wallstreet-online (8 October), it had not been delivered yet at that point. Whether an objection will be lodged is not known.
• The partners. No name has been given for the trading partner or the custodian, and there is no date for the restart. On 6 October the company spoke of “within the coming weeks”.
• The old trading system. Börse Express writes that the old trading system was switched off on 12 June. Kryptoszene writes that this happened in August, together with the transfer to a new custody infrastructure. We cannot establish which version is correct.
• The official source. At the time of writing, the websites of Bitcoin Group and Bitcoin.de could not be reached from our environment (no connection or access denied), and an archive copy could not be retrieved either. We know the announcement through Investing.com and through three independent outlets (Börse Express, wallstreet-online and Kryptoszene), not through the company itself.
• The ESMA register. The bank’s name is not in the list we looked at for this article, but absence from a register says nothing in itself. The rejection itself is the news.

This article is not investment advice. Crypto can lose a lot of value and you can lose your entire investment.

Frequently asked questions

Has Bitcoin.de closed?

No, the sources do not speak of a closure. Trading has been largely halted since 12 June 2026 and the company wants to resume it through regulated partners, with no date.

Can I withdraw my bitcoin from Bitcoin.de?

According to Börse Express and Kryptoszene, yes: crypto withdrawals are possible and euro deposits are paused. Check the current status in your own account.

Is my money on Bitcoin.de safe?

We cannot judge that. The company says customer claims remain unchanged and that futurum bank keeps holding the assets until they move to another custodian. How the custody is legally structured is not in the sources.

Why did BaFin reject the MiCA application?

According to Bitcoin Group, BaFin found the state of implementation and the progress achievable in the short term insufficient. BaFin itself had not made a detailed reasoning public at the time of writing.

What is a MiCA authorisation?

Permission from a national regulator under Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 to offer crypto services in the EU. You can see which providers are in the ESMA register in our overview of MiCA authorisations.

Sources

Read on 27 October 2026.

• Investing.com: Bitcoin Group SE, BaFin verweigert MiCAR-Zulassung für futurum bank AG (company announcement, 6 October 2026, 18:03)
• Börse Express: Bitcoin Group Aktie, BaFin lehnt MiCA-Antrag ab (7 October 2026)
• wallstreet-online: BaFin lehnt MiCAR-Zulassung für Bitcoin.de ab (8 October 2026)
• Kryptoszene: BaFin lehnt MiCA-Antrag der futurum bank AG ab
• BTC-Echo: BaFin verweigert MiCA-Lizenz, Bitcoin.de steht vor ungewisser Zukunft (8 October 2026)
• Cryptocode: MiCA register: authorised or just notified? (30 September 2026)
• Cryptocode: Buy bitcoin at Sparkasse: 0.99 euros plus a markup (19 October 2026)