Bitpanda has obtained its MiCA license from BaFin, Germany’s leading financial regulatory authority, to offer regulated services to 450 million EU citizens.
Bitpanda, an Austrian crypto-focused fintech platform, has reached an exciting regulatory milestone by obtaining MiCA compliance from Germany’s BaFin.
Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) is a comprehensive regulatory framework covering the European Union (EU) countries. It aims to create a unified, transparent, and secure market for crypto-assets across EU member states, ensuring legal certainty and consumer protection in the crypto and blockchain industries.
The framework unifies rules for the management, offering, exchange, trading, and transfer of crypto-assets, as well as the issuance of stablecoins and alternative digital assets across the whole Union. It also requires crypto service providers to adhere to minimum capital requirements to mitigate risks.
The newly secured license positions Bitpanda as a trusted platform in the European financial ecosystem. It demonstrates the firm’s compliance with high European standards for detailed disclosures about the crypto-assets offered, the security of the transactions and safety of stored user assets, customer protections against unethical practices and potential shortfalls, market integrity, and more.
With a MiCA license, Bitpanda can legally offer its crypto investing services to over 450 million EU citizens across all 27 European Union countries. Before this regulatory achievement, the crypto exchange also operated in multiple EU countries but had to adapt to individual national regulatory frameworks, additional requirements, etc. Besides, the lack of a unified regulatory framework made cross-border operations more complex.
Bitpanda’s CEO and co-founder, Eric Demuth, emphasized that this achievement sets a new standard for the industry, paving the way for safer and more regulated services throughout Europe. He highlighted the company’s readiness to offer a simple and secure investment platform to EU citizens, unlocking unprecedented growth potential in the market.
In 2024, Bitpanda expanded its partnership with Deutsche Bank to process customer deposits and withdrawals and provide real-time payment solutions for its users in Germany. This collaboration allows the crypto exchange to offer local IBANs to its German users, enhancing the efficiency and speed of transactions.
Bitpanda has become one of the first major crypto platforms to achieve regulatory compliance under the new MiCA regime. Earlier, Circle became the first stablecoin issuer to receive a French license for USDC and EURC to debut in the Union under the MiCA regulation (MICAR).
