Bitpanda

Bitpanda Acquires Crypto License From Germany’s BaFin

  • Austrian company specializing in crypto and other financial services, Bitpanda, has been granted a Crypto Custody and Proprietary Trading license from Federal Financial Supervisory Authority or BaFin.
  • The German subsidiary of the Austrian firm has become one of the four crypto firms that have been granted this license from BaFin and this puts Bitpanda ahead of several competitors.
  • Bitpanda is also regulated in Austria, France, Italy and Sweden and recently acquired operating license in Spain in an attempt to make it big in the crypto space.

Bitpanda, an Austrian company headquartered in Vienna that provides a cryptocurrency exchange, commodities and securities trading, and ETFs as well, has officially been registered as a crypto broker in Germany, which is gradually becoming a land for crypto firms and enthusiasts. Interestingly, this approval comes at a time when customers are quite skeptical of such firms due to the collapse of multi-billion dollar firm FTX.

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, or BaFin, is the financial regulatory authority for Germany and has approved Bitpanda to process cryptocurrencies for German customers under its Crypto Custody and Proprietary Trading license, as per a report. Moreover, the crypto focused firm doesn’t have to rely on passporting rules.

“After 8 years as a pioneer in the crypto industry and constantly striving to further regulation in our sector, we have become the first European retail investment platform to receive the largest crypto licence from the German BaFin,” said Bitpanda via a Twitter post on Tuesday.

The German subsidiary of the Austrian firm has become one of the four crypto firms that have been granted this license from BaFin, and this puts Bitpanda ahead of several competitors. Meanwhile, regulators have been viewing crypto exchanges through “red-colored glasses” following the implosion of FTX Voyager Digital, Celsius Network, and other such firms.

Not a long time ago, one of the biggest exchanges across the globe, confirmed that it had a severe shortage of liquidity and filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy as well. The exchange was valued at $32 billion and overnight was reduced to ashes as millions of creditors were left with their money stuck on the platform as withdrawals were halted as well.

The Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Bitpanda, Eric Demuth, said that “receiving the license 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” and added that the approval from the regulator strengthens its position in terms of pioneering regulation in Europe.

“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 licenses and product innovations,” said Demuth.

Bitpanda has been gradually establishing its dominance in the crypto sector and as per earlier reports, it gained regulatory approval from Spanish authorities and is also regulated in Austria, France, Italy and Sweden. The Austrian trading platform also decided to offer commodities trading services to its users after expanding its asset offerings over the past few years to stocks, ETFs, and precious metals.

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Parth Dubey Verified

A crypto journalist with over 3 years of experience in DeFi, NFT, metaverse, etc. Parth has worked with major media outlets in the crypto and finance world and has gained experience and expertise in crypto culture after surviving bear and bull markets over the years.

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