wpNex: crypto trading for banks and savings banks

dwpbank launched wpNex in March 2023 and named it after nexus, a connection. In dwpbank's words, wpNex Retail links the classic securities business with trading in digital assets. The platform is built on WP3, dwpbank's securities platform, and dwpbank calls it modular and asset-agnostic, to be extended step by step.

wpNex takes over the operational and regulatory work around trading, holdings management, custody and settlement. The customer needs no wallet and no private keys and does not have to move to another platform. Orders are paid from the current account, so no money has to be moved to a separate account first. At the launch, dwpbank said that about 1,200 banks and savings banks could connect through the interfaces they already use for securities and decide on their own when to start (dwpbank, in German).

MLP Banking AG made the first pilot trade on wpNex and bought bitcoin. dwpbank chose bitcoin for the pilot because of its market capitalization and said from the start that other regulated digital assets would follow. MLP customers have traded through wpNex since June 2024. In December 2024 dwpbank added ether and connected wpNex to the Ethereum blockchain, with further ERC-20 tokens named as the next step. Its MiCAR release names tokenized assets as the direction in which the platform will grow.

dwpbank routes each order to its trading partner and settles the trade. tradias, a BaFin-regulated execution venue and now part of Boerse Stuttgart Digital, executes the trades. Tangany keeps and manages the cryptographic keys. Kaiko delivers market data for the digital assets on wpNex, and Crypto Risk Metrics the ESG data. At the launch, valantic supplied the software for order routing and holdings management inside dwpbank's systems.

This split resembles crypto as a service: specialists run the regulated parts in the background, and the bank keeps the customer. With wpNex, the background is the same securities processor the bank already uses for funds and shares.

dwpbank handled crypto trades under a transitional regime from June 2024. BaFin then granted it a MiCAR permission to execute orders for crypto assets on behalf of clients, and dwpbank acts as commission agent for the banks and savings banks on wpNex. A second permission for the custody and administration of crypto assets and transfer services gives wpNex its own custody.

For its client banks, dwpbank takes over the reporting and KYC processes under the Transfer of Funds Regulation, whose travel rule requires sender and recipient data on every crypto transfer, and under the EU tax directive DAC8. With the custody permission, dwpbank says it is building a crypto offer for their customers together with connected Sparkassen; Finance Loop's page on Sparkasse crypto covers the savings banks' plans.

wpNex is dwpbank's platform for digital assets. Banks and savings banks connect to it to offer bitcoin and ether in their own online banking, and dwpbank runs trading and custody in the background.

MLP Banking AG was the first client and has offered crypto trading through wpNex since June 2024. dwpbank says it is building a crypto offer with connected Sparkassen and that wpNex is meant for client institutions from all three German banking sectors.

dwpbank holds a MiCAR permission for the custody and administration of crypto assets. Tangany supports it as a specialist for keeping the cryptographic keys, and the customer holds no private keys of their own.