“Can a self-custodial crypto wallet replace the four-tool stack (wallet + exchange + bank + card) that keeps Bitcoin out of everyday spending?”
Founded 2015 as a Bitcoin-native payments and remittance service in Berlin, Bitwala evolved into Germany's early 'bank for the blockchain economy,' offering a current account with an embedded BTC wallet on top of solarisBank rails. Rebranded to Nuri in 2021 to broaden appeal, then collapsed into insolvency in 2022 after crypto-market and counterparty (Celsius) exposure. Returned to the Bitwala brand in late 2023 with a fundamentally different thesis: self-custodial MPC wallet with no seed phrase, keys held by the user, paired with a Visa card and IBAN — collapsing wallet/exchange/bank/card into one product where custody stays with the customer.
Bitwala discloses Solarisbank as its banking provider, according to the Embedded Finance Index 2026.
Bitwala does not disclose a bank charter of its own; its banking services are provided through Solarisbank.
Bitwala's cards are issued through Solarisbank on the Visa network.
Bitwala's lending and capital products are provided by Bitwala (in-house, waitlist).
Bitwala's crypto products run on Bitwala (in-house) and Self-custodial (MPC, user-held keys).
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Bitwala's stack: Banking / BaaS (Solarisbank); Card issuing (Solarisbank); Card network (Visa); Lending (Bitwala (in-house, waitlist) and Bitcoin-backed loans (waitlist)); Crypto (Bitwala (in-house) and Self-custodial (MPC, user-held keys)).
Bitwala was founded by Jörg von Minckwitz, Jan Goslicki and Benjamin P. Jones and is founded in 2015, headquartered in Berlin, Germany.
Bitwala has raised $1.6M (post-relaunch entity, per LinkedIn) in total.
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Bitwala and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.