Spanish banking giant Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) is deepening its foray into the crypto ecosystem.

Garanti BBVA Kripto, a crypto custody platform operated by Garanti BBVA — Turkey’s fifth largest bank, which as of December 2023 was almost 86% owned by BBVA — will soon be providing crypto trading services to the general public. Bit2Me, a crypto exchange founded in Spain in 2014, will be used as the bank’s trading execution center.

And now that the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation is in full effect across the European Union, the partnership between BBVA and the crypto exchange is a strong signal of more things are brewing on the horizon, according to Abel Peña, Bit2Me’s chief sales officer.

“I believe in…