Bank Closed Your Account Over Crypto: Your Rights and the Route to a Replacement Account

If your bank terminates your account after money has arrived from a crypto exchange, that one banking relationship ends, but your participation in the payment system does not. The German Payment Accounts Act (Zahlungskontengesetz, ZKG) gives every consumer lawfully resident in the European Union a right to a basic payment account, and Section 35(1) sentence 3 ZKG expressly forbids a bank from refusing that right on the grounds that another account still exists, when that very account has been terminated. Everything that follows turns on that sentence. This piece explains what happens legally when an institution ends a banking relationship over crypto payments: which notice period applies, why the letter usually gives no reason, which documents actually bring an anti-money-laundering review to a close, and in what order you approach the consumer arbitration body, the supervisor and the courts. The details relate to German law and to institutions based in Germany. A Frozen Account and a Terminated Account Are Two Different Things The two words get mixed up in everyday use, but they lead to completely different steps. A freeze is a temporary measure: the contract continues to exist, t...