Crypto banking app Bitwala relaunches via new partnership with Striga
European cryptocurrency banking platform Bitwala, formerly known as Nuri, is coming back after ceasing operations and returning customer funds last year.
Bitwala is relaunching operations under its original name, in partnership with the support of the banking infrastructure company known as Striga, the firms said in a joint announcement to Cointelegraph on Nov. 8.
As part of the partnership, Striga is providing Bitwala with “Banking and Crypto-as-a-Service,” enabling the crypto banking app to draw on its trading and card-issuing functionality, Bitwala CEO Dennis Daiber said.
Bitwala, which rebranded as Nuri in 2021, filed for insolvency in August 2022, citing liquidity issues coming amid a massive crypto bear market that was triggered by the Terra crash. The firm eventually shut down operations in October 2022, asking its 500,000 users to withdraw their assets before the year-end deadline.
“We wanted to build a bank. We had all the documents, audits, applications and approvals — only thing missing was 50 million euro for liquidity coverage ratio and runway,” Daiber told Cointelegraph. He added:
According to the announcement, the Striga partnership solved one of the key challenges that Bitwala was facing by providing compliant digital assets and banking infrastructure out of the box, “without the need to handle any regulatory burden.” Founded in 2018, Striga provides financial services infrastructure for companies in crypto and banking. The firm is incorporated in Estonia and is a fully-owned subsidiary of Lastbit, which is incorporated in Delaware, the United States.
The Bitwala app is immediately accessible in 29 countries within the European Economic Area, allowing users to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) with the
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