Vienna, November 22, 2022 – The Bitpanda Asset Management GmbH has received its Crypto Custody and Proprietary Trading licence for crypto assets from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
This makes the fintech the first European retail investment platform to meet BaFin’s strict regulatory requirements.
This Crypto Custody and Proprietary Trading licence for crypto assets is based on the new licensing regime introduced by BaFin in January 2020. It is the most comprehensive licence of its type in Germany and will allow Bitpanda to independently offer crypto custody, as well as proprietary trading for crypto assets for German residents.
Additionally, Bitpanda will be able to maintain an order book and directly market services for crypto assets, enabling them to provide a secure and regulated environment for German customers to invest in a wide range of cryptocurrencies.
We are the first European retail Investment platform to receive the full Crypto Custody and Proprietary Trading licence from the German regulator BaFin. pic.twitter.com/eTjiM7BLTM
— Bitpanda (@Bitpanda_global) November 22, 2022
Eric Demuth, CEO and co-founder of Bitpanda, said:
“At Bitpanda we set the highest standards for ourselves and remain absolutely committed to doing things right, and doing the right things. This principle is firmly embedded in our DNA as a fully regulated investment platform and, in my opinion, critical to the long-term success of our industry. The security of our customer’s digital assets, as well as those of our White Label partners, is our top priority.
“Receiving the licence in Germany is the result of many months of hard work on the part of the entire Bitpanda team and took close cooperation with the team at BaFin. It strengthens our position as a pioneer in terms of regulation in Europe and highlights yet again how well positioned we are in this area. We want to give our customers a safe, secure and simple way to invest. That means being regulated and it means a strict separation of customer and company assets, which is sadly not the case everywhere these days. We have more exciting announcements to come in 2023 as we continue to deliver additional licences and product innovations.”
Safe, secure and regulated
Bitpanda was founded in 2014 as a crypto trading platform by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer. Austria’s most valuable fintech company has grown into Europe’s leading investment platform with nearly 4 million investors, offering people the freedom and flexibility to invest in Europe’s largest selection of digital assets around the clock, depending on their budget and risk tolerance.
Committed to regulatory compliance
Since it was founded the Bitpanda Group has made regulatory compliance a top priority, something that partner companies can also rely on. Just recently, Bitpanda announced digital bank N26 as the latest partner for its investing-as-a-service solution – Bitpanda White Label.
In addition to being licensed to hold and trade cryptocurrencies for its own account the Bitpanda Group is also registered with the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), the French Autorité Des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the Czech Trade Authority as VASP, holds the PSD2 licence, the MiFID II licence and became Austria’s first Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in accordance with European law (EMD2), plus has a fully AML5 compliant KYC process.
Furthermore Bitpanda became the first foreign crypto provider to become fully licensed in Sweden, and also secured registration with the Italian Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP) and the Bank of Spain. Through Bitpanda Custody, the Group is also able to provide custody services in the United Kingdom in addition to Bitpanda’s existing licences in the European Union.