There was an article today in one of the local tech-zines. It looks like a crypto exchange in Germany acquired entire (smaller) standard bank - thus acquired also a solid, EU banking licence.. is this the first time EVEr that any crypto market venue bought for itself A BANk?? - robotic translation via Google below
https://www.bitcoingroup.com/userfiles/downloads/cn2018/181112_Bitcoin_CN_Tremmel_DE.pdf
Bitcoin.de, a German cryptographic stock exchange, bought a 100 percent stake in Tremmel, the Tremmel investment bank in Frankfurt. On Monday, Bitcoin Group SE announced the investors for the stock exchange.
The exact amount of the acquisition was not disclosed but, according to the company, it was a lower seven-figure amount in euros. With this step, the company acquired its own banking license, enabling it to operate a network of its own cryptographic "ATMs" on the largest national European market, which was not legally possible without a bank license.
Bitcoin.de Cryptographic Exchange is one of the largest and oldest European BitTorrent Stock Exchanges. It is quite unique in that it is regulated by German BaFin (the state financial regulator), which makes it one of the safest but also the least effective (the trade is settled only after the amount has been credited to the bank account of the counterparty, the exchange itself does not keep the money in the custody) stock exchanges in the world. However, the slow pace of closing trades and liquidity problems could finally unravel after the acquisition of the bank.