Nuri Bank (Bitwala) Review 2026: Closed — Where the Money Went

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Nuri no longer exists: it filed for insolvency on 9 August 2022 and stopped operating in late 2022, and its customer base was taken over by Vivid Money — the full timeline is below. If you came here looking for a working euro account to replace it, a Wise euro balance is one live option. Wise is not a bank, so read the Alternatives section further down for how it differs from a licensed bank such as bunq or Revolut.

What Nuri was

Nuri was a Berlin-based digital banking service built around cryptocurrency, launched under the name Bitwala and rebranded to Nuri in 2021. The proposition was a single app holding a euro account, a Bitcoin and Ethereum wallet, and — later — an interest-bearing crypto product. Reporting at the time put the customer base in the hundreds of thousands.

The structural point is that Nuri was not itself a licensed bank. It was the interface and the brand; the euro accounts were provided by a licensed German partner bank, solarisBank, which held the banking licence.

The timeline

• 9 August 2022: Nuri filed for insolvency, citing liquidity problems as the cryptocurrency market fell. Its interest-bearing crypto product had already been hit by the bankruptcy of its third-party lending partner, Celsius, which froze the yield-earning funds of Nuri customers.

• October 2022: After failing to secure a new investor, Nuri announced that it would cease all operations.

• 24 October 2022: Vivid Money announced that it would take over Nuri's customer base, giving users the option to move their remaining balances, including cryptocurrency, to a new Vivid account.

• 18 December 2022: The final deadline for customers who did not migrate to withdraw all remaining funds. Euro balances remained at the licensed partner bank, solarisBank, throughout.

What happened to the money — and why the answer has two halves

The two halves of a Nuri customer's balance behaved completely differently.

The euro balances were held at a licensed bank and were not part of Nuri's insolvency. Money in a customer's euro account sat with the partner bank, not on Nuri's own balance sheet, and was therefore not available to Nuri's creditors. Deposits at a licensed German credit institution are covered by the statutory deposit guarantee scheme, which across the EU protects up to EUR 100,000 per depositor per institution under Directive 2014/49/EU.

The crypto interest product was a different story. Funds in it had been lent on through Celsius, and when Celsius went bankrupt those funds were frozen. Deposit guarantee schemes do not cover crypto-assets, so nothing stood behind them.

The regulated euro accounts survived untouched because a licensed partner bank held them; the unprotected crypto yield assets were caught in a counterparty's insolvency.

What the move to Vivid Money meant for customers

According to a report by The Paypers, Nuri users were forwarded to the Vivid app, where they could open a new Vivid account and transfer any remaining balance, including cryptocurrency, with free access to Vivid's Prime plan for a limited period as an incentive.

This was an offer, not an automatic transfer. Customers who did not want to move had to withdraw their funds themselves by 18 December 2022. Because the euro balances were unaffected by the insolvency, they could be withdrawn in full.

Is Bitwala back?

The Bitwala name has returned, which is part of why "Nuri bank" is still searched. In November 2023, trade reporting revealed that the Bitwala brand relaunched as a crypto-trading app through a partnership with Estonia-based Striga, a subsidiary of Lastbit, available in 29 European Economic Area countries for buying and selling Bitcoin and Ether in euros over SEPA transfers.

It is a crypto-trading app, not the old Nuri euro account, and it is not a bank deposit. We have not verified its current terms or licensing; read the provider's own terms and check its registration with the relevant regulator before sending any money. Crypto-assets can lose value quickly and are not covered by deposit guarantee schemes.

Why this model was fragile

It is easy to read a crypto neobank collapsing in 2022 as simply a casualty of a bad market. That is true and it is not the useful part. The fragility was structural, and the same structure exists today under different brands.

A conventional bank makes money on the spread between what it pays depositors and what it earns lending; it is boring, heavily supervised, and when it goes wrong a scheme stands behind the deposits. A fintech built on a partner bank earns nothing on the deposits at all — the partner holds them and keeps the economics — so the brand has to make its money somewhere else. In 2021 that meant trading fees and yield products.

That creates a specific pressure: revenue depends on customers doing risky things, and the risky things depend on counterparties the customer never chose and cannot assess. When the market turned, trading volume fell and the yield counterparty froze, so both revenue lines and one customer asset class went at once.

Nuri was not a scam and did not lose customer euro deposits. It built a popular, compliant product and still ceased to exist on about four months' notice, because its revenue model required a market that stopped existing and it had concentrated a whole product line on one counterparty. The regulated, boring part survived precisely because it was regulated and boring.

Does the provider you use now have the same shape?

Five questions will tell you, and you can answer them from the provider's own website in under ten minutes.

• Does the app's small print name a different company as the account provider? If yes, you are in the same three-party structure Nuri used, and your deposit protection follows that other company.

• Is any part of your balance earning a return meaningfully above deposit rates? If yes, find out who is paying it and what they are doing with the money to generate it.

• Does the provider hold a banking licence itself, or an e-money or payment licence? The protection is completely different and only the register will tell you.

• Would you still be fine if the brand disappeared next quarter, assuming the underlying licensed entity was unaffected? If not, you are relying on the brand rather than on the structure.

• Do you have a second account elsewhere with your salary details on file? This is the cheapest insurance in personal finance and almost nobody holds it.

None of those questions is an accusation against any provider. They are the questions that would have separated the protected and unprotected halves of a Nuri customer's balance in 2022, and they separate them just as cleanly now.

Alternatives

We are not going to pretend a defunct bank has a natural successor. What Nuri's customers actually wanted — a euro account plus multi-currency handling in one app — is served by several live providers, and the sensible comparison is on the same terms: who holds the money, under which licence, with which protection.

If you need a licensed bank, Revolut is the closest like-for-like option in the EEA, especially if you require many currencies in one app. Another strong alternative is bunq, which holds a banking licence issued and supervised by De Nederlandsche Bank. Eligible deposits at bunq are covered up to 100,000 euros per depositor under the Dutch deposit guarantee scheme. However, bunq's e-money accounts are not covered by this scheme, meaning the specific product you hold inside the app determines whether the guarantee applies.

If currency exchange is your main priority, Wise is the strongest option despite not being a bank. Ultimately, the right choice depends on whether you need a licensed bank or an e-money provider. You should always look up the provider in its regulator's public register to confirm whether the specific product you are opening is a deposit or e-money.

The bottom line

Nuri, formerly Bitwala, is not an option in 2026 and has not been since December 2022. Its euro accounts were held by a licensed partner bank and stayed protected; its crypto yield product was frozen with Celsius. The lesson for any provider you consider now is to treat crypto yield as an investment, not banking, and to find out which entity — brand, partner bank or third-party platform — actually holds each part of your money, because statutory protection only follows the licensed bank.

Where to go next: open a Wise euro balance

Related reading: what happens when a neobank fails · How to check whether a bank is actually licensed · our Wise vs Airwallex comparison · best neobanks ranked · crypto banking explained · Your Bank Wants to Close Your Account: The 90-Day Rule That Started in April 2026

Frequently asked questions

Can I still open a Nuri bank account?

No, you cannot open a Nuri bank account. Nuri filed for insolvency on 9 August 2022, stopped operating in late 2022, and instructed its customers to withdraw their funds by 18 December 2022. The brand is not an option in 2026 and has not been since December 2022.

Following the closure, Nuri's customer base was taken over by Vivid Money in October 2022. Former customers were given the option to transfer their balances, including cryptocurrency, into a new Vivid account or withdraw their funds before the December deadline.

Is Nuri a bank?

No, Nuri was never a licensed bank itself. It was a Berlin-based fintech brand and digital banking app, formerly known as Bitwala.

The euro accounts offered through Nuri were actually provided by its licensed German partner bank, solarisBank, which held the banking licence. Nuri merely acted as the brand and the user interface.

Nuri filed for insolvency in August 2022 and ceased operations later that year. Because Nuri was not a bank, its insolvency did not affect the euro balances, which sat safely outside Nuri at the partner bank under German statutory deposit protection.

What happened to customer money when Nuri closed?

When Nuri closed, what happened to customer money depended entirely on the product held.

Euro balances were held at Nuri's licensed German partner bank, solarisBank, meaning they were kept outside Nuri's insolvency and were not available to its creditors. These deposits were protected up to EUR 100,000 per depositor under the German statutory deposit guarantee scheme.

Conversely, crypto assets placed in Nuri's interest-bearing product were lent to a third-party platform, Celsius. When Celsius went bankrupt, these funds were frozen. Because deposit guarantee schemes do not cover crypto assets lent for yield, these funds were entirely unprotected.

Customers were instructed to withdraw their funds by 18 December 2022 or migrate their balances to Vivid Money.

Where did Nuri customers go?

Following Nuri's insolvency and decision to cease operations in late 2022, Vivid Money took over Nuri's customer base in October 2022.

Nuri customers were forwarded to the Vivid app, where they could open a new Vivid account and directly transfer their remaining balances, including cryptocurrency. Migrating customers were also offered free access to Vivid's Prime plan for a limited period.

Alternatively, customers could choose to withdraw their funds entirely. Those who did not migrate to Vivid had to withdraw all of their balances by the deadline of 18 December 2022.

Is Bitwala the same as Nuri?

Bitwala was the original name of Nuri, a Berlin-based crypto-banking app launched under the Bitwala brand and renamed to Nuri in 2021. Nuri filed for insolvency in August 2022 and ceased operations later that year.

However, the Bitwala brand was relaunched in November 2023 as a crypto-trading app through a partnership with Striga. This active Bitwala app is not the same as the old Nuri euro account, and it is not a bank deposit. Instead, it is a crypto-trading app designed for buying and selling Bitcoin and Ether.

This is general information, not financial advice.