Web3 across Germany

Web3 is the name for internet services that run on blockchains. Instead of a company keeping your account in its database, you hold a wallet with a private key, and your assets and rights sit on a public ledger. Programs called smart contracts run the rules, for example a lending pool or an exchange, and anyone can check them. The web3 and blockchain answer in the knowledge hub explains the terms.

How does web3 work in banking? Three uses matter for a German bank: holding and trading crypto-assets for customers, issuing and settling tokenized securities, and paying with tokenized money such as euro stablecoins. All three need a license, and all three change who holds the keys. Web3 Network, a network of investors and decision-makers, states its goal as joining web3 with the traditional financial world.

Germany has no separate web3 law. The EU's MiCA regulation covers crypto-assets, stablecoins and the firms that trade or hold them, and BaFin grants the licenses in Germany. Tokenized securities fall under securities law and the Electronic Securities Act, and unique NFTs are mostly outside MiCA. The MiCA in Germany page covers the details.

For banks there is a shortcut. A bank or savings bank that already holds a license can offer crypto services after a notification to BaFin under Article 60 of MiCA, filed at least 40 working days before the first service. That is why customers of some Sparkassen trade bitcoin in the Sparkasse app and DZ BANK runs meinKrypto for the Volksbanken and Raiffeisenbanken.

Once a bank sells crypto, its advisors, compliance officers and back office need to explain the product, check it and book it. EXPERT KEY offers web3 trainings to banks, savings banks and companies, on site or remote, in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, on blockchain, smart contracts, cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and DeFi. The TUM Blockchain Club's free Web3 Talents program covers the basics for anyone, and Finance Loop's Bitcoin for Investors masterclass is for asset managers and advisors.

Germany's web3 scene spreads across several cities, each with a different crowd. Berlin is the builder city: the Web3 Foundation holds its Web3 Summit at Funkhaus Berlin, the best-known web3 summit in Germany. Munich has W3MUC, which calls itself Munich's web3 hub, and the TUM Blockchain Club. In Frankfurt the web3 side meets the banks: Superteam Germany, the German chapter of the Solana builder network Superteam, has held ideathons and a Supertour stop there, and Web3 Network runs the Forum für Digitale Vermögenswerte for institutional investors. Dortmund hosts CONF3RENCE, which brings emerging technology and the traditional economy into one room.

Four questions come up at almost every web3 meeting with a bank. Who holds the keys: the customer in a self-hosted wallet, or a licensed custodian? How does a transfer to or from a self-hosted wallet meet the travel rule of the Transfer of Funds Regulation? Where does DeFi stand, since MiCA leaves services that run fully decentralized without an intermediary out of scope? And which euro money settles onchain: a MiCA e-money token such as AllUnity's EURAU, tokenized deposits or central bank money?

Finance Loop is a network partner of W3MUC and DLT Germany for finance and web3 events in Munich, an event and network partner of Web3 Network and Superteam Germany, and it was media partner of Supertour Germany in Frankfurt and of CONF3RENCE in Dortmund. EXPERT KEY is a knowledge partner of Finance Loop. Its network had guaranteed spots at the Web3 Builders Ideathon in Frankfurt. Finance Loop launched an Alliance for Finance and Web3, supported by TechQuartier and the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, and has a long-term partnership with BTC-ECHO on crypto assets, DeFi and web3 in the German-speaking countries. At the German Blockchain & AI Week 2025 in Berlin, which Finance Loop supported, a session covered the benefits of web3 and its real-world applications.

At Finance Loop events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg, web3 builders meet bankers, asset managers and compliance people, plus IT and AI engineers.

Web3 means internet services built on blockchains, where users hold their assets in their own wallets and smart contracts run the rules. In finance it covers crypto-assets, tokenized securities, stablecoins and DeFi.

A bank either holds crypto-assets for its customers, issues or settles tokenized securities, or uses tokenized money for payments. In Germany each of these needs a BaFin license or a MiCA notification, and most banks work with a licensed custodian for the keys.

Yes. The Web3 Foundation holds the Web3 Summit at Funkhaus Berlin, a hacker-focused event with a strict no-sponsorship policy. Web3 events in Frankfurt, Munich and Dortmund are in the calendar above.

At Superteam Germany ideathons, at the Forum für Digitale Vermögenswerte of Web3 Network, at the Crypto Assets Conference and at Finance Loop meetups, where web3 builders meet the city's banks.