Salzburg, home of the 21bitcoin app. Image from Metro Centric via flickr.com. License: Creative Commons
The 21bitcoin app allows you to buy and sell Bitcoins. With a new investor, the company not only gets money – but also a strategic partner who is well known in the scene and is ideologically on the same page.
21bitcoin is serious about its name. 21 is a sacred number in Bitcoin circles, the sound of which alone sparks joy. This also stands out in terms of the amount of new investment that 21bitcoin has brought in. It’s, you guessed it, 2.1 million euros.
21bitcoin is an Austrian app that allows you to buy and sell Bitcoins. At 0.79 percent, the fees are more expensive than on marketplaces such as Bitcoin.de, but options such as a savings plan and automatic payout to an external wallet make the app popular in the scene.
The investor is no stranger to the industry, but rather Volksbank Bayern Mitte. Raiffeisenbank has been selling Bitcoins to its customers for some time and is now investing in 21Bitcoin as a “strategic partner”. It’s not just about the money, but also about the shared mission. Thanks to “Raiffeiesenbank Bayern Mitte’s comprehensive network, we are prepared to lead Europe on the path to a Bitcoin standard,” writes 21bitcoin in the press release.
With the investment, the app plans, among other things, to “seamlessly” introduce the Lightning network and “be the first Bitcoin company with the new European MiCAR license.” This legislative package is intended to harmonize crypto regulation across the EU from the end of 2024, which not only 21bitcoin sees as an opportunity for expansion. Under MiCAR, market fragmentation could end and increased competition for European crypto investors could break out. On the other hand, MiCAR could increase regulatory pressure on 21bitcoin, which currently enjoys comparatively lenient regulation in Austria.
Aside from these plans, 21bitcoin and Volksbank Bayern Mitte are also pulling in the same ideological direction. Both parties consistently narrow the broader financial technology revolution that lies in cryptocurrencies and blockchains to Bitcoin. By only offering Bitcoins, both the app and the bank deprive their customers of the choice to invest in alternative cryptocurrencies or even to deal with them.
Such an approach certainly has the advantage of protecting customers from widespread fraud with “shitcoins” and focusing all resources on an optimal offer tailored to Bitcoin instead of getting bogged down in 1001 altcoins. But on the other hand, it threatens to cut off customers from a part of the monetary revolution that is perhaps as important as Bitcoin – if not more important – and to give them a distorted view of what is actually happening in the industry.
Source: https://bitcoinblog.de/2023/11/06/bitcoin-app-21bitcoin-erhaelt-neues-investment/
