BaFin refused Bitcoin.de's MiCAR licence, halting the German exchange

On 6 October 2026 Bitcoin Group SE was informed that Germany's financial regulator BaFin had refused the application by its subsidiary futurum bank AG for authorisation as a crypto-asset service provider under the EU's MiCAR regulation (2023/1114). BaFin's previous tolerance of futurum bank providing crypto-asset services no longer applies. The company stressed that customer assets remain secure and customer claims remain fully intact — but the exchange's regulatory basis was gone.

CEO Moritz Eckert called the decision 'a setback': the measures BaFin required were 'already well advanced', but in the regulator's view the current level of implementation and operationalisation, and the further progress achievable in the short term, were not sufficient, 'making a refusal of authorisation unavoidable at this point in time'. The company said it takes a different view but had prepared for the possibility of refusal; it is reviewing the decision, can lodge an objection, and may submit a new application in future.

The fallback is an alternative operating model: futurum bank intends to sign cooperation agreements with regulated German companies so trading can resume through the technologically renewed bitcoin.de app 'within the next few weeks', with the company promising to keep customers transparently informed in the meantime.

Tolerance for bitcoin.de's crypto services ended and trading halted pending a partner-based model, despite prepared contingency plans and a planned objection.

The company ran a crypto exchange on BaFin's tolerance while its licence application lagged — a position that always ended in either approval or a stop.

BaFin's refusal turned on operationalisation, not intent: being 'well advanced' with required measures did not satisfy a standard measured in working systems.

The stop hit a live marketplace, not a plan: every day of halted trading is carried by customers whose assets were safe but inaccessible through the exchange.

The contingency — regulated partners and a renewed app — existed before the refusal, an admission the company knew approval was at risk.

Operating under a regulator's tolerance is borrowed time: when the licence decision arrives, only completed, operationalised readiness counts — 'well advanced' is not done.

Bitcoin Group announced it would pursue cooperation agreements with regulated German companies to resume trading within weeks, while reviewing the refusal, weighing an objection, and keeping open a future reapplication. The material records no fine — the sanction is the refusal itself and the trading halt that followed.