Januar

Januar is a Danish financial services company built from the ground up for the operational banking needs of crypto businesses. Unlike most neobanks and payment processors that treat crypto as an afterthought or a compliance risk, Januar was founded by people who understand the crypto sector's technical and regulatory realities. The company positions itself as solving a banking bias problem: traditional banks will freeze accounts or refuse service to exchanges, custodians, and other legitimate crypto businesses the moment compliance teams flag cryptocurrency involvement. Januar instead built its infrastructure to sit at the foundational layer of banking, closer to the regulated plumbing than to a consumer-facing app.

Januar is incorporated in Denmark with CVR (Centralt Virksomhedsregister) number 38891294 and is regulated by Finanstilsynet, Denmark's Financial Supervisory Authority. The company holds two active licenses that cover its two main business lines. The first is a Payment Institution license under PSD2 (license ID FTID:21230), which allows it to issue e-money and offer payment services across the EEA under European passporting rules. The second is a CASP license under MiCA (the EU's Markets in Crypto-assets Regulation, license ID FTID:10908), which specifically authorizes it to hold crypto assets on behalf of customers and provide custody services. The combination of these two licenses is what differentiates Januar from many competitors: it can bridge fiat and crypto without requiring customers to use a third party for either leg. It is not a marketplace where users trade crypto owned by someone else; Januar itself can custody digital assets and move fiat on its own account.

The core product is an operational IBAN account for crypto companies. Januar provisions named EUR, USD, and DKK accounts, with IBANs issued from multiple jurisdictions: Germany, Denmark, Luxembourg, and the UK. A crypto company using Januar can receive deposits into a German IBAN (subject to German regulations), a Danish one (subject to local Danish oversight), or another jurisdiction depending on where its customers are or where it wants settlement to occur. This flexibility matters for compliance reasons: some EU states have quirks in how they treat crypto businesses, and being able to hold accounts in multiple jurisdictions hedges that risk. It also matters operationally: a platform serving primarily Nordics customers can use a Danish IBAN, reducing settlement friction and potentially lowering fees if the receiving banks are local to the account location.

Each IBAN comes with real payment infrastructure behind it. Januar's accounts can send and receive standard SEPA transfers, SWIFT payments in USD, and domestic instant transfers within each jurisdiction (Faster Payments in the UK, instant SEPA within the eurozone). There is no artificial fragmentation; it is not that a user can only send money from a Danish account to Danish banks. A German IBAN can receive a transfer from any EU bank, a SWIFT transfer from anywhere globally, and can send money back out the same way. The operating model is that of a genuine payment account, not a crypto wallet with a SEPA wrapper.

Crypto conversion is built in. A crypto company can deposit its native revenue (Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, whatever it transacts in) and convert it to EUR, USD, or DKK for operational expenses. The conversion happens through Januar's own execution, so there is no need to sell on an external exchange, pay a merchant fee, and wait for settlement. The platform quotes a rate, the company executes the conversion, and fiat appears in the IBAN within hours. This is critical for a crypto-native business because it solves what is often called the "ramp" problem: moving value from the crypto world into the fiat banking system. Traditional fiat-to-crypto ramps charge high fees and impose strict limits. Januar's internal conversion pipeline is designed for institutional volumes.

The platform itself is API-first. Januar provides SDK access so a crypto business can integrate account management, payment initiation, and conversion workflows directly into its own systems. This is important for platforms that want to offer IBAN accounts to their own customers (e.g., an exchange that wants to provision a separate IBAN per customer for deposits) because they can query Januar's API to check balances, execute transfers, and manage approvals without sending humans back to a web portal. Multi-signature approval is supported, so a crypto business can enforce its own internal controls, for example requiring two team members to approve any payment over a certain threshold.

Januar's compliance posture is an important structural feature. The company describes itself as built for businesses that are either regulated themselves or that understand they soon will be. The MiCA license means Januar's own operations are subject to that regulation, including anti-money laundering, sanctions screening, and customer identification procedures. Any customer using Januar is therefore benefiting from an already-regulated flow; if the customer itself is a licensed CASP or a payment provider under MiCA, the combined regulatory environment is clear. Januar does not market itself to unregistered individuals or gray-area businesses. Onboarding involves standard business KYC: proof of identity, beneficial ownership, business registration, and a description of how the business generates crypto (mining, trading, custody, payments, or something else). The underwriting is serious because Januar is a regulated entity and is accountable to its supervisor.

Pricing is not fully transparent on the website, following the pattern of most B2B banking infrastructure. Januar charges account fees (a monthly fee for holding an IBAN), transaction fees (per SEPA transfer or SWIFT payment), and conversion spreads (a markup on the crypto-to-fiat rate). The company also offers API-based access for high-volume users, and pricing scales with transaction volume. A small crypto startup pays less than a high-volume exchange running a heavy daily transfer load. The company positions its pricing as competitive against traditional banking for crypto but does not publish fixed rates; quotes are available upon application.

The customer base Januar serves includes crypto exchanges, custodial platforms, payment service providers that accept crypto, staking services, and DeFi intermediaries, in short, any entity that generates revenue or holds value in crypto and needs a way to pay bills or settle with customers in fiat. A newly founded exchange can use Januar to open a bank account within weeks rather than the months or outright rejections traditional banks impose. An established platform can use Januar to diversify its banking relationships so it is not dependent on a single bank that might change its crypto policy or face regulatory pressure.

Januar operates across the entire EEA under European passporting rights. Any cryptocurrency business in any EU member state can open an account, and the company also serves Iceland, Norway, and Liechtenstein. Customers must be EEA residents or entities registered in the EEA; the company does not serve customers outside that perimeter, so someone trying to set up an account from the US or Asia would need to look elsewhere. Within the EEA, however, Januar is available to any legitimate business, regardless of local regulator.

The company competes in the space occupied by a handful of other specialists: fintechs that have specifically won licenses to serve crypto businesses. It is distinct from general-purpose neobanks like N26 or Revolut that nominally accept crypto but treat it as a compliance burden and often freeze accounts. Januar's entire product and culture is oriented toward crypto from the beginning. Its founders are crypto-native; its licensing path was deliberately chosen to allow crypto operations; its API and account design accommodate the technical realities of how crypto businesses actually work. It is also distinct from pure crypto platforms (exchanges, custodians) that happen to hold a banking license; Januar is first and foremost a banking and payment service, not a trading platform or custody vault.

For a crypto business anywhere in the EEA that needs an IBAN to operate, whether to pay employees in EUR, settle with partners in USD, or provide customers with a withdrawal path to fiat, Januar is a direct solution. It removes the friction of finding a traditional bank willing to work with a crypto company. The cost is modest compared to the cost of staying unbanked, and the regulatory foundation is genuine: Finanstilsynet's oversight means the company is subject to the same capital, conduct, and anti-money laundering standards that apply to all regulated payment institutions in Denmark.