Buying Bitcoin under 18: the rules for parents

Buying Bitcoin under 18 does not work on your own in Germany. No statute stops a 16-year-old from owning Bitcoin, yet the providers who handle the purchase will not take minors as customers, and a contract concluded without parental consent remains provisionally invalid. Two clean routes are left: the parents buy in their own name, or they buy and then gift the coins to the child. Which of the two is chosen decides who owns the coins, who pays the tax and who is liable if anyone later disputes the deal.

The question comes up more often than the legal position suggests. Teenagers hear about crypto assets at school, on video platforms and from friends, and many parents want to set something aside for their child that goes beyond a savings account. The obstacle sits in ordinary civil law. It has governed what minors can validly agree for more than a century, and it holds no special rule for crypto assets.

Can a 16-year-old buy Bitcoin in Germany?

The law separates ownership from the act of contracting. A minor may hold crypto assets. There is no age limit on owning Bitcoin, any more than there is on owning a bicycle. The catch sits in the acquisition. Anyone aged between seven and 17 has limited legal capacity, and under Section 107 of the German Civil Code (BGB) they need their legal guardian's consent for every declaration of intent that does not bring them a purely legal benefit. A purchase contract always carries an obligation too, namely payment, so it is never purely beneficial.