Global asset manager VanEck has announced a partnership with ING Germany, the country’s third-largest bank, to offer retail customers seamless access to cryptocurrency-linked investment products. Beginning February 2026, ING Germany’s retail clients can trade VanEck’s suite of Exchange-Traded Notes (ETNs) directly through their existing “Direct Depot” brokerage accounts.

This integration allows investors to gain exposure to digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) without the complexities of managing private keys or digital wallets. The firm already has a history of moving in asset classes, which include gold investment, emerging markets, and EFTs, and is now expanding into digital assets. 

Lowering the barrier to entry

The partnership aims to bridge the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and the digital asset economy. By utilizing familiar banking infrastructure, ING Germany is positioning itself as a primary gateway for regulated crypto exposure.

Under the new arrangement, ING Germany customers can trade 11 VanEck crypto ETNs with reduced or zero execution costs:

• Orders of €1,000 or more: No execution fees
• Orders below €1,000: Flat fee of €3.90
• Savings plans: Executed free of charge

The pricing model is designed to make crypto investments more accessible for long-term and retail investors using traditional brokerage accounts.

“Many investors want a solution that fits into their existing portfolio structures and also offers transparent costs. This partnership delivers exactly that—it brings crypto exposure to where investors are already investing: in their securities accounts,” says Martijn Rozemuller, CEO of VanEck Europe.

List of VaEck crypto ETNs available

The 11 crypto ETNs offer both single-asset and diversified exposure:

• DE000A28M8D0 VanEck Bitcoin ETN
• DE000A3GPSP7 VanEck Ethereum ETN
• DE000A3GWEU3 VanEck Crypto Leaders ETN
• DE000A3GWNE8 VanEck Algorand ETN
• DE000A3GV1T7 VanEck Avalanche ETN
• DE000A3GXNV0 VanEck Chainlink ETN
• DE000A3GSUC5 VanEck Polkadot ETN
• DE000A3GV1U5 VanEck Polygon ETN
• DE000A3GXNT4 VanEck Smart Contract Leaders ETN
• DE000A3GSUD3 VanEck Solana ETN
• DE000A3GSUE1 VanEck TRON ETN

These products allow investors to participate in the crypto market via regulated securities traded on traditional exchanges.

VanEck’s “altcoin” ETFs

The partnership with ING Germany follows VanEck’s recent move in the U.S. market. Earlier this year, VanEck launched the first Avalanche exchange-traded fund on Nasdaq, listed under the ticker VAVX, giving investors regulated exposure to AVAX without directly holding the token. The ETF tracks AVAX’s price and incorporates staking rewards into its net asset value, offering a yield of about 5.6% as of January 23.

While early trading activity was modest, the launch reflects a broader shift toward using familiar ETF vehicles to gain exposure to blockchain infrastructure. It also serves as a test of investor appetite for crypto assets beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum. Institutions are increasingly seeking to diversify their exposure within regulated market structures.

Further, traditional banks are also increasingly adopting crypto-linked products. The distinction between traditional finance and digital assets is becoming increasingly hazy. The VanEck-ING Germany partnership signals increasing institutional acceptance for crypto ETNs in Europe, offering regulated low-cost access to digital assets through established banking platforms. 

Also Read: Who Bought 49% of Trump-Linked Crypto Platform for $500M?

Tether, the issuer of the USDT stablecoin, has open-sourced its Bitcoin Mining Operating System (MOS), in a push toward more decentralized Bitcoin mining. The company announced the move on February 2, 2026, making the software publicly available to the mining community.  

This update was announced at the 2026 Plan ₿ Forum in San Salvador, highlighting Tether’s expanding focus on Bitcoin infrastructure development.

The announcement also marks a strategic pivot for the $120 billion plus company, aiming to break the “black box” of proprietary software that has long dominated industrial-scale mining operations.

A unified “nervous system” for miners

Current mining operations often resemble a patchwork of disconnected software: one for hashrate monitoring, another for electrical transformers, and a third for cooling systems. MOS seeks to replace this with a single operational layer.

It’s a special computer operating system for Bitcoin mining, designed specifically to run and manage mining hardware and operations. MOS provides end-to-end visibility across mining sites—covering:

• Mining hardware performance
• Energy consumption and efficiency
• Device health and failures
• Infrastructure and site-level operations

Tether ❤️ Bitcoin

Tether Mining OS is now fully opensource.

A complete operational platform that can scale from a home setup to industrial grade site, even across multiple geographies.

Super modular, P2P encrypted networking layer.
It supports a long list of miners,… https://t.co/VzXywA6IZc

— Paolo Ardoino 🤖 (@paoloardoino) February 2, 2026

This flexibility removes the need for centralized third-party software and reduces dependence on proprietary mining management platforms.

“Whether it’s a small operator running a handful of machines or a full-scale industrial site, the same operating system can scale without reliance on centralized, third-party software,” said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether.

Introducing the Mining SDK

Alongside MOS, Tether unveiled the Mining SDK, the foundational framework behind the operating system. SDK stands for Software Development Kit. It is a modular toolkit for developers that makes it easier to build new mining software or tools by using ready-made building blocks instead of starting from scratch.

While MOS is ready for immediate deployment, the SDK is being released as a collaborative project to be finalized with the open-source community in the coming months.

The Mining SDK provides developers with:

• Pre-built modular components (“workers”)
• Simple APIs for device and infrastructure integration
• A UI development kit to quickly build dashboards and internal tools

This allows developers and mining companies to build custom mining software without core infrastructure, dramatically lowering development time and cost.

Shifting the competitive landscape

The move reflects a broader shift in Bitcoin mining, where competition is increasingly being defined by operational efficiency rather than access to proprietary technology. 

By open-sourcing its mining software stack, Tether aims to lower entry barriers for new miners, enable customization without vendor lock-in, reduce centralization in mining infrastructure software, and strengthen the long-term resilience of the Bitcoin network.

Ardoino shared that the goal is to make Bitcoin mining more open, accessible, and competitive; a goal that “ultimately strengthens the resilience of the Bitcoin network.”

Also Read: Tether Posts $10B Profit as U.S. Treasury Holdings Hit Record $141B