Germany's financial landscape just shifted. DZ Bank, the country's second-largest lender, has obtained MiCAR authorization to launch its digital asset platform meinKrypto. The platform will initially offer Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Cardano to retail users.

This moves beyond symbolic. When legacy banking heavyweights get regulatory greenlight to operate crypto platforms, it signals something deeper—mainstream financial infrastructure treating digital assets as standard business, not fringe experiment.

The real question: does MiCAR become the template that breaks down barriers for other traditional European banks? If established institutions can meet these compliance standards, the infrastructure exists. What's been speculation about institutional adoption now has regulatory scaffolding.

For the broader market, each major bank entering with full licenses chips away at the narrative that crypto exists outside the system. Whether that accelerates adoption among conservative European depositors depends on execution and trust-building—but the permission structure is officially in place.