It’s no longer news that Bitpanda has gotten the nod from the Spanish Government to operate in the country as a digital custody service provider and a virtual currency exchange. However, this does not in any way infer that it’s the first time it’s operating in the country. A representative at Bitpanda asserted that they have been existing in the country since 2014.
Announcing this newly achieved feat, they shared on their Twitter handle, “At Bitpanda, we’ve made it our mission to do things the right way, not the easy way. That means two things above all, regulatory compliance and licensing. After just recently obtaining licenses in Sweden and Italy, we are now officially registered with the Bank of Spain.”
History of Bitpanda
Eight years ago, Bitpanda was founded in Vienna, Austria by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek, and Christian Trummer as a platform to trade only cryptocurrencies. However, Bitpanda was not its first name. Coinimal was its first adopted name; it was only in 2016 that its name was changed to Bitpanda. Another office was opened in London two years later. As the years went by, they started trading in precious metals and securities and even partnering with Visa so people could pay for goods and services in cryptocurrency using credit cards.
As of 2021, Bitpanda has about 2.7 million customers and 500 employees and is valued at over $4 billion.
Products & Services
On Bitpanda, you could trade in commodities such as silver and gold. And as cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin or Ethereum. In a digital wallet, you could also store all your cryptocurrencies and send them to others on Bitpanda’s platform.
All about Spanish approval
On June 16, the bank of Spain recognized and officially registered Bitpanda in its registry for crypto firms. This is coming barely a year after the bank of Spain gave a nod of approval to crypto service providers in the country by opening a registry for them. Bit2Me was the first firm to get approved and be added to the list historically.
In other news, it’s asserted that the European Union is setting up a license in all its member states that would recognize crypto firms to operate in them once they have been regulated in one state. This is known as Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation. The MICA standard is already in its final stage so far.
Thing is, Bitpanda had already been approved as a virtual asset service provider in Italy and Sweden before the European License was even enacted. For two years earlier on, all its services were available in French and were duly registered with the Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF)—the Financial Markets Authority of France.
As the global crypto market suffers from the crash, Bitpanda is working towards getting approved in many nations and ensuring safety in investments in countries where it operates. Security of the community tops their priority.
Safety first is their watchword as Eric Demuth, their co-founder, stated in a business release, “As recent market developments have proven, where you acquire your digital assets matters, and we will always put our community’s safety first as we work tirelessly to build the finest and safest investment platform in Europe and beyond.”
However, Bitpanda is not the only company to have achieved such a feat in Europe recently. Others include BingX and a host of others.
In other news, Bitpanda is said to have purchased a custody platform to protect your crypto asset known as “Trustology” in the UK earlier this year. This means their range of services has been expanded, and their users will pay zero custody fees on Bitpanda’s digital asset exchange as their safety is also increased.
In their words, this is just the beginning!
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