bitcoin.de especially is SPECIFICALLY included by KWG §1 Abs. 1a, 1b & 4.
Can you shortly write in English what this KWG article says? My German is still poor.
Anyway, these guys running bitcoin.de know what they are doing, not?
basically it says that if you're trading with BTC (not using them to buy/sell stuff), you need to get a permit from bafin (the german SEC).
OK, I found it in English:
http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/KWG.htm(1a) Financial services institutions are enterprises which provide financial services to others commercially or on a scale which requires a commercially organised business undertaking, and which are not credit institutions. Financial services are
1. the brokering of business involving the purchase and sale of financial instruments or their documentation (investment broking),
2. the purchase and sale of financial instruments in the name of and for the account of others (contract broking),
3. the administration of individual portfolios of financial instruments for others on a discriminatory basis (portfolio management),
4. the purchase and sale of financial instruments on an own-account basis for others (own-account trading),
5. the brokering of deposit business with enterprises domiciled outside the European Economic Area (non-EEA deposit broking),
6. the execution of payment orders (money transmission services), and
7. dealing in foreign notes and coins (foreign currency dealing).
(1b) For the purpose of this Act, "institutions" are credit institutions and financial services institutions.
Where do you see BTC mentioned there? Because my grep fails to find it
bitcoin is NOT considered "e-money", it is however legal to create it and spend it.
however, once "it itself becomes subject of trading" that trading becomes "banking"
Als Zahlungsmittel bestimmte Werteinheiten, die in Barter-Clubs, privaten Tauschringen oder anderen Zahlungssystemen gegen realwirtschaftliche Leistungen, Warenlieferungen oder Dienstleistungen geschöpft oder wie z.B. die Bitcoins gegenleistungslos in Computernetzwerken erschaffen werden, scheiden damit aus dem Tatbestand des E-Geldes aus, auch wenn sie wirtschaftlich die gleiche Funktion wie E-Geld haben und unter Geldschöpfungsgesichtspunkten das eigentliche Potential privat generierter Zahlungsmittel stellen (s. hierzu auch die RegBegr. zu § 1a Abs. 3, BT-Drucks. 17/3023, S. 40). Diese Einschränkung vollzog der nationale Gesetzgeber bereits mit der Umsetzung der Ersten E-Geld-Richtlinie[7] im Rahmen des 4. Finanzmarktförderungsgesetzes[8]; mit der Streichung des Tatbestandes des Netzgeldgeschäftes (§ 1 Abs. 1 Satz 2 Nr. 12 KWG in der Fassung der 6. KWG-Novelle; KWG-Novelle 1997, Inkrafttreten 01.01.1998), wurde der Aspekt privater Geldschöpfung ausgeblendet.
Erlaubnisfrei sind insoweit jedoch nur die Schaffung derartiger Werteinheiten und ihr Einsatz als Zahlungsmittel. Wenn unterdessen diese Werteinheiten ihrerseits selbst zum Handelsgegenstand werden, ist das Geschäft je nach seiner Ausgestaltung als Bankgeschäft nach § 1 Abs. 1 Satz 2 Nrn. 4 oder 10 KWG oder Finanzdienstleistung nach § 1 Abs. 1a Satz 2 Nrn. 1 - 4 KWG zu qualifizieren und steht nach § 32 Abs. 1 KWG grundsätzlich unter Erlaubnisvorbehalt. Diese Werteinheiten sind Rechnungseinheiten und fallen als solche ohne weiteres unter die Finanzinstrumente im Sinne von § 1 Abs. 11 KWG.
[Cashvalue payment units such as those created in or by] barter clubs, private barter or other payment systems [to be used] against real economic performance or delivery of goods or services such as the Bitcoins are [..] created in computer networks, [are different from] e-money, even if they [perform] the same function as e-money and put [the] money creation point of the real potential of privately-generated cash see (this includes the RegBegr. to § 1a paragraph 3, BT-pressure. 17/3023, p.40). This restriction already occurred, the national legislature with the implementation of the First E-Money Directive [7] in the framework of the 4th Financial Market Promotion Act [8], with the deletion of the facts of the net cash transaction (§ 1 paragraph 1 sentence 2 No. 12 of the Banking Act as amended by the 6th KWG amendment, KWG 1997, entered into force 01.01.1998), was the aspect of private money creation hidden.
No permit is [neccessary for] the [..] creation of such units and their use as currency. Meanwhile, if this value units turn themselves to trading subject to, the business [qualifies] as a banking business in accordance with § 1 paragraph 1 sentence 2 numbers 4 or 10 of the Banking Act or a financial services according to § 1 section 1a sentence 2 Nos. 1-4 of the Banking Act to qualify and are generally [required as per] § 32 paragraph 1 of the Banking subject to permission.
These units are units of account value and as such are automatically covered by the financial instruments referred to in § 1 para 11 KWGn
There you go.