Update Feb. 2, 2024: Corrected the article to reflect that cold storage is also part of Bitpanda’s default business-to-customer broker, as communicated by the firm.
Austrian fintech unicorn Bitpanda is launching an institutional-grade cryptocurrency trading platform in response to Europe’s growing demand for institutional crypto services.
Bitpanda, a cryptocurrency broker founded in 2014, has launched Bitpanda Wealth, a new service targeting high-net-worth individuals, family offices, external asset managers and corporate treasuries.
Announcing the news on Jan. 30, Bitpanda said that the new platform was built using the same infrastructure that several major European banks trusted. Bitpanda Wealth offers a suite of services to facilitate crypto investment, management and reporting services, also featuring leverage products, exchange-traded funds, commodities and other assets.
“Bitpanda Wealth is a new service only available to high net worth investors and is based on a personal relationship manager. It’s designed to support sophisticated trading and the additional reporting requirements that come with larger sums of money,” a spokesperson for Bitpanda told Cointelegraph.
Bitpanda is turning its attention to a sector in Europe that “seems underserved,” Bitpanda co-founder and CEO Eric Demuth told Cointelegraph.
“There’s a notable interest in this area, yet it lacks adequate solutions,” Demuth said, adding that Bitpanda has engaged with “numerous private banks and affluent clients who have expressed a need for a distinct service.”
Bitpanda Wealth will be available to users from across the European Union, where Bitpanda currently holds the licenses to operate its broker platform. Bitpanda holds licenses in European jurisdictions like Austria, Germany, France, Czechia, Sweden and Norway.
Bitpanda has recently announced its departure from the Netherlands, planning to offboard dutch residents based in the next month.
“We don’t currently hold a crypto asset services provider registration in the Netherlands or have any intention of applying for one in the near future,” a Bitpanda representative said.
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The new institutional platform uses Bitpanda’s proprietary custody solution known as Bitpanda Custody, which applies cold storage to keep its clients’ assets safe, the CEO noted. Registered with the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, Bitpanda Custody offers segregated wallets for institutional investors, service providers, token issuers and corporate treasuries.
Demuth stated:
“When it comes to asset security, we are monitored by multiple financial market authorities and have our funds and business practices regularly validated by external parties. We are trustees on behalf of our users, and all of their funds are held in cold storage — that’s a major difference between Bitpanda and an exchange.”
Cold storage is used by Bitpanda as its standard storage for all assets for clients of its default retail business-to-customer broker, the firm’s spokesperson said in a statement by Cointelegraph.
Bitpanda Wealth isn’t the first institutions-grade platform launched by Bitpanda; the firm previously launched Bitpanda Pro, a brokerage services platform and an over-the-counter trading desk, in 2019. In 2021, Bitpanda Pro rebranded as One Trading after securing a 30-million-euro Series A round.
“One Trading was entirely separated from Bitpanda last year after a successful Series A,” the Bitpanda CEO told Cointelegraph.
Bitpanda has been working with local regulators to secure the necessary licenses to provide its services. Bitpanda also assisted Raiffeisen Bank’s Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien in launching crypto trading services in 2023.
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