A Small Bank in Germany Is Now Nearly 30% Owned by Crypto Companies

Almost 30 percent of the equity in WEG Bank AG, a previously obscure German bank focused on the real estate industry, is now owned by companies in the cryptocurrency industry, CoinDesk has learned.
By purchasing 9.9 percent of the bank, blockchain startup Nimiq now joins TokenPay and the Litecoin Foundation as part owners of the Munich-area financial institution. (Under German law, foreign ownership stakes of 10 percent or greater require additional regulatory approval.) TokenPay became the first crypto company to acquire the bank’s equity in 2018, with Litecoin Foundation director Charlie Lee joining the bank’s board in a related move. Then WEG Bank enlisted Nimiq to help develop infrastructure for external crypto-to-fiat conversions for banking clients. Nimiq raised roughly $12.8 million in a token sale in 2017 and, much like TokenPay, has invested its ICO funds in other assets as well, such as real estate and now equity. Nimiq co-founder Elion Chin said in a statement: “With Litecoin and Tokenpay as existing shareholders, new clients including [blockchain application platform] Lisk, and other key prospective partnerships, we believe WEG Bank is on the way to reinventing itself as a bank of the future.”