Crypto Banks in 2026: Earn Interest on Bitcoin and ETH

"Crypto banking" is a marketing phrase covering several different things, and the differences decide what happens to your money when a provider fails. This guide separates them, and corrects a claim that appeared in an earlier version of this page: Nexo does not hold an EU banking licence. The detail is below, and it matters, because the product being promoted on the strength of that claim is a yield account.

The regulatory frame that now applies in Europe

The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation (MiCA) is the defining change. It created an authorisation regime for crypto-asset service providers — a CASP licence — covering custody, exchange and related services across the bloc, with a separate and earlier regime for stablecoin issuers.

Two things MiCA does not do, and both are widely misunderstood:

• It is not deposit insurance. A CASP licence brings conduct, custody and disclosure requirements. It does not put your crypto inside a compensation scheme.

• It does not cover everything a platform sells. Lending and yield products in particular can sit outside a CASP or MiFID authorisation even at an authorised firm.

Check whether a provider holds an authorisation in its own name, and which of its products that authorisation actually covers.

The one rule that survives every cycle

Crypto held at a platform is not a deposit. It is not covered by FDIC, FSCS or any national deposit guarantee scheme, whatever the app looks like and whoever the provider banks with.

That is the whole lesson of 2022–2023. When Celsius, BlockFi and FTX failed, customers discovered their "accounts" were unsecured claims against an insolvent company. Their money was not stolen in every case — it was lent to the platform under terms nobody read, and it ranked accordingly in the insolvency.

The same structure is still being sold. The regulation is better; the structure has not changed.

The categories, and who is in each

Traditional banks that let you trade crypto — Revolut

Revolut lets you buy, sell and hold a wide range of crypto inside the same app as your money. Convenient, and worth being precise about: your cash may sit with a licensed bank while your crypto does not. Revolut states explicitly that virtual currencies, commodities and investments are outside the deposit protection that covers the cash. Same app, two entirely different levels of protection.

Crypto exchanges with a card attached — Coinbase

The Coinbase Card lets you spend a balance anywhere the network is accepted, converting at the point of sale, with crypto rewards on spending. Rewards rates change frequently, so check the current terms rather than any figure in an article.

This is a spending rail on top of an exchange, not banking. See our Coinbase review.

Yield platforms — Nexo, and the correction

Nexo offers interest-earning accounts on crypto deposits — up to 9.5% a year on USDT and up to 8.5% on USDC as advertised on its own earn page, read 10 August 2026, subject to region and loyalty tier — plus crypto-backed loans.

It does not hold an EU banking licence, and as of August 2026 it did not hold a MiCA CASP authorisation in its own name. It filed a MiCA application with Bulgaria's Financial Supervisory Commission in February 2026 and structured an entity under German oversight, and it operates in the EEA through licensed partners — Tangany for custody and DLT Finance for brokerage.

The part that matters most: the earn rewards and crypto-backed loans sit outside those partners' authorisations, under Nexo's own separate terms. So the licensed-partner structure covers custody and brokerage, and does not extend to the yield product itself.

None of this says the product will fail. It says the yield is not underwritten by a banking licence, and any article implying otherwise — including our own earlier version — was giving you false comfort.

Actual banks for digital assets — Sygnum

Sygnum is a Swiss bank with a FINMA banking licence, offering custody, trading and tokenisation. It is genuinely a bank rather than a platform, aimed at professional and institutional clients rather than retail.

It is the useful counter-example: when a real banking licence is involved, the provider says so plainly and names the regulator.

What to check before depositing anything

• Who holds the asset, and is it segregated? Custody with a licensed custodian in your name is a different thing from a pooled platform balance.

• Does the provider hold an authorisation in its own name, or does it rely on partners? Both can be legitimate; only one puts the obligation on the firm you contracted with.

• Is the specific product covered by that authorisation? Yield and lending are the usual exclusions.

• Where does yield come from? If a platform cannot explain the source of a return well above what banks pay in the same currency, that is the answer.

• What ranks ahead of you in insolvency? For any yield product, you are typically an unsecured creditor.

Risk warning

Crypto carries risks beyond traditional banking, and improved regulation has not changed the fundamentals. Crypto assets are not covered by FDIC, FSCS or EU deposit guarantee schemes. Prices are volatile, platform failures have happened repeatedly and recently, and recovery through insolvency takes years where it happens at all. Never hold more than you can afford to lose, and do not keep money you actually need in the same place as the money you are speculating with — the neobank safety guide covers how to separate the two.

The Verdict

For most people, Revolut's integrated crypto trading is the simplest option. For dedicated crypto users, Nexo and Coinbase offer deeper functionality. Always verify the regulatory status of any crypto banking product before depositing funds. This is general information, not financial advice.