Spanish banking giant Bankinter has made a strategic investment in cryptocurrency exchange Bit2Me, acquiring a minority stake as part of a €30 million ($33 million) funding round. The investment round was led by Tether, the stablecoin issuer, marking another significant move by traditional financial institutions into the crypto sector.
Bankinter joins other major Spanish financial institutions that have already backed Bit2Me, including BBVA, Unicaja, and Cecabank. This growing list of traditional banking supporters highlights the increasing convergence between conventional finance and cryptocurrency markets.
In an official statement, Bankinter emphasized its intention to "foster synergies through collaboration in blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT)." The bank views this investment as a strategic move to expand its digital and technological offerings within the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency market.
Bit2Me operates under the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, which provides it with a regulatory framework to expand its operations across Europe and Latin America. This compliance enables Bit2Me to offer crypto services to financial institutions in these regions while meeting regulatory requirements.
The exchange has already established significant partnerships with traditional financial institutions. Bit2Me provides backend crypto services for Garanti BBVA, Turkey's largest private bank, and has partnered with Cecabank to launch a custody and trading platform. These collaborations demonstrate Bit2Me's positioning as a gateway for banks seeking regulated access to the crypto market.
Bit2Me CFO Pablo Casadío commented on the significance of the investment, stating that collaborations like the one with Bankinter "show the banking sector's willingness to integrate strengths rather than compete with fintech companies." The funding round reflects growing confidence in the cryptocurrency sector and Bit2Me's role in bridging traditional finance with crypto markets.
