Amid the crypto winter and liquidity crisis, the Austrian crypto exchange and custody platform Bitpanda announced that it had received a crypto trading license from Germany’s BaFin. According to Bitpanda, it is the “first European retail investment platform to meet BAFIN’s strict regulatory requirements.” The crypto exchange allegedly benefited from the FTX crisis because many customers would have transferred their cryptos to the regulated Bitpanda.
Bitpanda currently holds seven licenses and registrations with European supervisory authorities besides the new BaFin license, including the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) and the French Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). The company was founded in 2014 and claims to have more than 3.5 million customers.
FTX’s fast and loose approach to customer safety will damage the crypto industry’s reputation for a long time. However, this agreed-upon procedure by KPMG is further proof that we will always put the trust of our customers and the safety of their funds first.”
Eric Demuth, CEO and co-founder of Bitpanda
Due to the FTX collapse and the liquidity problems of other crypto exchanges and brokers, Bitpanda has had a voluntary audit of its assets and reserves conducted by KPMG. Just recently, the big four accounting firm KPMG has signed off that Bitpanda’s funds “exceed customer holdings following a special review held in light of the recent FTX collapse.”
