Tradias, the digital assets arm of the German-licensed and regulated Bankhaus Scheich, has received a securities trading bank license from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). In addition, Tradias just completed a Series A round of funding.

Tradias had leveraged Bankhaus Scheich’s BaFin license previously. 

Tradias heading out on its own?

Tradias hinted broadly in the announcement of its license that it had expansion plans. Tradias CEO Michael Reinhard said the license would “open a new chapter of accelerated growth and solidify our position as a leading regulated player in the digital assets space." The announcement continued:

“With our new status as a licensed securities trading bank and strengthened equity base, we will drive our European expansion in 2025, upgrade our product offering, and continue to innovate in the fast-evolving world of digital assets.” 

Bankhaus Scheich created Tradias in 2020 as an over-the-counter trading platform for cryptocurrencies and security tokens and a market maker providing crypto loans and liquidity services.

The firm did not provide any information about its funding round, aside from calling it “successful” and saying it has a “strong balance sheet.” Deutsche Bank’s asset management arm DWS Group was  reportedly interested in investing  in tradias in 2023. 

Bloomberg  reported  that the Series A funding came “mainly from family offices as well as from wealthy private investors from the German-speaking world” and the fresh money would allow it to increase its staff size from 90 to 100 by yearend. 

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Active in Germany

Bankhaus Scheich is one of three institutional liquidity providers for the regulated Boerse Stuttgart exchange. It is the second-largest exchange in Germany and earlier in October  participated in testing  secondary market transactions using Blockchain technology with the European Central Bank and six German banks.

Tradias secures funding, BaFin license, eyes European expansion image 0

Source: BTC Echo

Bankhaus Scheich  cooperated  with German prosecutors in the state of Hesse to sell seized Bitcoin ( BTC ) earlier in 2024. 

Tradias  partnered in 2023 with  securities processor Deutsche WertpapierService Bank (Dwpbank) on its wpNex platform that offers Bitcoin to account holders at the 1,200 banks that Dwpbank serves. 

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