Investing in Bitcoin: Savings Plan or Lump Sum

Anyone putting money into Bitcoin today decides first on the form: a single amount all at once, a fixed monthly instalment or an exchange-traded security in a securities account. In October 2026 this decision about investing in Bitcoin has an additional reason to be looked at closely. The German finance ministry’s draft bill on crypto taxation provides that the one-year holding period continues to apply only to holdings acquired by December 31, 2026. Whatever is bought after that is to fall under the flat-rate withholding tax. The cabinet is due to adopt the draft on October 14.

This article recalculates the three routes against the prices of the past ten years, explains the German tax position for each of them and names what can go wrong on each route. It gives no buy recommendation and names no price target. You will find the current level and the analyst views on Bitcoin on our prediction page.

Investing in Bitcoin: These Three Routes Are Open in Germany

All three routes lead to a stake in the price performance of Bitcoin, but they differ in what you own at the end and in how the tax authorities treat it.

The direct purchase means that you acquire real Bitcoin and either leave it with the trading platform or transfer it to a wallet of your own. A wallet is not a purse but the management of a cryptographic key pair with which you can dispose of a blockchain address. Whether you deploy the whole amount at once or a monthly instalment is, on this route, purely a question of timing.