- The partnership’s goal is to offer users Bitcoin-friendly bank accounts.
- Blockrise is the first business to leverage bunq’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offer.
- bunq’s BaaS is the first of its kind, enabling companies to build upon bunq’s open API.
Amsterdam, 29 April 2026 — bunq, Europe’s second-largest neobank, announced its partnership with Dutch Bitcoin platform Blockrise as part of bunq’s new Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) offering. Blockrise is the first business to leverage bunq’s platform, which integrates the neobank’s secure and regulated financial infrastructure directly into a business’s own products to improve user experience.
Starting in the Netherlands, the collaboration enables Blockrise users to instantly access Bitcoin services with embedded bank accounts. All fiat deposits are protected up to €100,000 by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Scheme through bunq’s European banking license, ensuring user trust and security.
A first in the banking industry, bunq’s BaaS platform enables companies to build upon bunq’s open API, leveraging its security and speed. The service will help provide users with better, safer products by handling complex compliance and security requirements so they can innovate faster.
“Up to now, Dutch Bitcoin users had to choose between security and convenience. With bunq's infrastructure, they get both — a bank account that works seamlessly with Bitcoin, protected by the Dutch Deposit Guarantee Scheme,” said Jos Lazet, Founder and CEO of Blockrise. “We are proud to be the first-ever Bitcoin platform that is able to offer full bank accounts to our clients.”
“For over a decade, bunq’s mission has been to make life easy for our users. Now, we're taking that mission even broader," said Joe Wilson, Chief Evangelist at bunq. “By partnering with innovators like Blockrise, we empower them to build products that match their users’ wants and needs in a trusted and secure platform. This is how we help more people across Europe: by working with an exclusive group of like minded fintechs to create incredible user experiences.”
bunq, Europe’s second-largest neobank, has rebuilt banking from the ground up. As the world’s first GenAI-powered bank, bunq’s proprietary AI powers every part of the business, from helping users with their finances, to being baked into bunq’s own operations. By developing a product rooted in its users’ wants and needs, bunq makes life easy for location-independent people and businesses, starting from the way they manage money: how they spend, save, budget and invest.
Pioneering many things considered impossible, bunq was the first bank to get a European banking permit in over 35 years, raised the largest series A round ever secured by a European fintech (€193 million), and was the first EU neobank to achieve structural profitability. As part of its mission to build the first global neobank, in October 2025 bunq also took its first step into the US as an approved broker-dealer, with more expansion to follow. Learn more: www.bunq.com
Blockrise is a Bitcoin-only platform based in Rotterdam, on a mission to make bitcoin accessible without compromising what makes it valuable. Founded in 2017, it offers trading, asset management, and Bitcoin-backed loans through a hybrid custody model that gives clients full ownership of their bitcoin. Regulated by the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) under MiCAR, Blockrise serves individuals and businesses across Europe. Bitcoin-backed loans are offered by Blockrise Lending B.V. and are not regulated under MiCAR. Visit www.blockrise.com.