Belgian second-largest bank KBC Group announces major news: starting the week of February 16, its investment platform Bolero will officially offer Bitcoin and Ethereum trading services to retail investors, becoming a pioneer in the country's banking industry. Behind this move is the full implementation of the EU MiCA crypto asset regulatory framework—these rules, coming into effect by the end of 2024, for the first time clearly regulate the trading and custody of digital assets, providing a "legal license" for traditional financial institutions to enter the market.

KBC is no ordinary player. As a European financial institution managing over 500 billion euros in assets, it dares to be the first to take the plunge, precisely because the MiCA framework eliminates regulatory gray areas. As long as it obtains the (CASP) qualification as a crypto asset service provider, the bank can operate such businesses compliantly, no longer needing to test the policy boundaries as in the past.

However, this "embrace" is not unconditional. KBC is launching a "closed-loop trading model" on Bolero—BTC and ETH bought by customers are fully custodied by the bank, neither withdrawable to personal cold wallets nor transferable to other exchanges. In other words, your crypto assets are locked within the platform, and the bank maintains strict control over the asset flow. This is both a rigorous risk management measure and a carefully designed way to ensure customer retention and fee income. This conservative strategy reflects traditional financial institutions' cautious attitude toward the crypto market: they want a share of the pie but are reluctant to assume the risks brought by decentralization.