Bitpanda Review: MiCA Licence, Fees and What You Can Buy

Last updated: October 2026

Bitpanda is a Vienna-based broker, founded in 2014, that sells crypto, stocks, ETFs and precious metals to European retail investors through one app. Its main selling point is regulation: Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) authorised Bitpanda GmbH as a crypto-asset service provider under the EU’s MiCA rules in April 2025. This Bitpanda review uses that licence as the lens. It explains what authorisation does and does not do for your money, then sets out the published fee tiers and product range. It draws on Bitpanda’s cost documents, regulator notices and news reports as of October 2026, not on account testing.

Key takeaways

• Bitpanda GmbH holds a MiCA CASP authorisation from Austria’s FMA, dated 9 April 2025 by register trackers; Bitpanda also announced MiCA licences from Germany’s BaFin (January 2025) and Malta’s MFSA.
• Its crypto cost document (version 4.0.0, dated 8 July 2026) lists a trading fee of 0.99% for stablecoins and Bitcoin, 1.49% for most other coins and 2.49% for small caps, and it does not quantify any spread.
• Stocks, ETFs and ETCs cost a fixed €1 per order, with savings-plan buys free under a promotion, per the securities cost document of the same date.
• US residents are not onboarded. UK customers use a separate entity that is FCA-registered for anti-money-laundering purposes, which is not the same as FCA authorisation.
• A planned Frankfurt IPO was paused in September 2026, and the CEO announced his departure for early 2027.
• Most reported harm to Bitpanda users comes from impersonation: fake emails, SMS and “security hotlines”.

This is not legal or financial advice; check the regulator registers yourself before opening any account.

Bitpanda review: who it serves and where it isn’t available

Bitpanda is built for people in the European Economic Area who want a simple app rather than an order book. Its main audiences are buy-and-hold investors and monthly savers in Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and other EEA countries. A separate advanced trading venue, Bitpanda Fusion, offers volume-tiered fees for more active traders.

Availability limits are important. Third-party country lists consistently place the United States outside Bitpanda’s onboarding area, and Bitpanda’s own focus is Europe. In the UK, Bitpanda relaunched in 2025 through Bitpanda Broker UK Ltd, which the FCA registered as a cryptoasset business in February 2025. That registration covers anti-money-laundering supervision only. UK customers do not get the Financial Ombudsman or compensation protections that apply to fully authorised firms for crypto holdings. The sign-up flow is the definitive check for your country. Do not try to work around a restriction; an account opened under false residency can be frozen.

What Bitpanda’s MiCA authorisation means for your money

The Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) replaced 27 national registration regimes with one licence that can be “passported” across the EEA. Our EU crypto regulation explainer covers the law in general; here is how it applies to a Bitpanda customer in practice.

Bitpanda MiCA licence: the entities behind the app

Bitpanda is a group, and different products sit in different companies. The table below summarises what was on record in October 2026. Register entries were not all directly accessible, so the sources are named for each row.

To check the crypto licence yourself, search for “Bitpanda GmbH” in ESMA’s interim MiCA register of crypto-asset service providers. It lists the authorising authority, the services covered and the EEA states the firm has notified for passporting.

Three practical effects of MiCA

• Segregation. MiCA requires custodians to keep clients’ crypto separate from their own assets and to keep a register of each client’s positions. If the firm fails, those assets should not form part of its insolvency estate. “Should” matters: the rules have not yet been tested in a large European crypto insolvency.
• Complaints. Authorised providers must run a documented, free complaints procedure. If Bitpanda’s answer does not satisfy you, the FMA, as home supervisor, is the authority to contact.
• Passporting. One Austrian licence lets Bitpanda serve other EEA states that it has notified. Day-to-day supervision stays with Vienna. Some national regulators publicly questioned other countries’ MiCA approvals during 2025, so expect supervisory friction to continue.

What MiCA does not cover

MiCA is conduct regulation, not insurance. Crypto held at Bitpanda is not a bank deposit and is not covered by deposit guarantee schemes. Price falls are entirely your risk. Euro balances held as e-money are safeguarded under e-money rules, which is a different and narrower protection than deposit insurance. Securities held through the investment firm fall under a third set of rules. Ask Bitpanda support which compensation scheme, if any, applies to your securities account before you assume you are protected.

Proof of reserves is another gap. This review found no published, independently attested proof-of-reserves report from Bitpanda as of October 2026. The company points instead to its regulated status and reported ISO 27001 and SOC 2 certifications. A regulator’s capital and segregation rules are not the same as a public, on-chain reserve check.

Bitpanda fees: premiums, spreads and savings plans

Bitpanda once priced crypto through a single “premium” built into the quote. Its July 2026 cost document now lists an explicit trading fee per coin tier, calculated on a firm quote that Bitpanda provides. The quote itself can differ from the market mid-price. Spreads are not quantified for crypto, and the securities document states that “spreads may apply in addition”. Compare the quoted price with an independent market price before confirming.

The tier system makes savings plans on small-cap coins much more expensive than plans on Bitcoin. A monthly plan pays the fee on every purchase, so a 2.49% tier costs two and a half times more per euro than a 0.99% tier for the life of the plan. If you use a savings plan to dollar-cost average, the coin you choose sets your recurring cost as much as the platform does. Margin trading has its own daily and closing fees; it is a leveraged product, and most retail users should treat it as out of scope.

Beyond crypto: Bitpanda stocks, ETFs and metals

The multi-asset range is what separates Bitpanda from a crypto-only exchange. Under one login, the app offers:

• Stocks, ETFs and ETCs through Bitpanda Financial Services GmbH, with orders routed to the Quotrix venue. Fractional amounts are available. Austrian and German tax withholding is listed as free, which matters if you want a tax-simple account; our Germany crypto tax guide explains how crypto gains are treated separately.
• Precious metals (gold, silver, platinum, palladium), held for customers in vaults rather than as tokens on a blockchain.
• Crypto indices that rebalance monthly against MarketVector model portfolios, with the 1.99% fee applied to each automatic trade.
• Staking on selected coins, with the 20% commission noted above. Rewards vary and are not guaranteed.

If you are comparing multi-asset apps, our eToro crypto review covers the closest rival with a social-trading angle. Card availability and product menus vary by country, so confirm in-app what is offered where you live.

Ownership news and the Bitpanda IPO plans

Bitpanda was co-founded in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer and is backed by investors including Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. In January 2026, Bloomberg reported that it was preparing a Frankfurt listing for the first half of 2026 at a valuation of roughly €4–5 billion, with Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Deutsche Bank lined up as arrangers. That window closed without a listing. On 15 September 2026, Bitpanda announced that CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad will leave in the first quarter of 2027 to join Erste Group, with Christian Trummer named co-CEO immediately. Enzersdorfer-Konrad told Bloomberg the IPO was halted because of adverse market conditions but remains on the agenda.

Two other corporate facts are relevant to customers. Bitpanda reported adjusted 2025 revenue of €371 million and adjusted EBITDA of €13 million, down from €52 million, according to reports in September 2026. Deutsche Bank has provided real-time payment accounts for Bitpanda’s German users since a June 2024 expansion of their partnership; that is a payments relationship, not crypto custody. None of this changes how your assets are held, but leadership change and thinner margins are reasons to keep monitoring the regulator’s notices.

Is Bitpanda safe? Scam messages using the Bitpanda name

This review found no publicly reported hack of Bitpanda customer funds as of October 2026. The documented threat is impersonation. Security researchers at Cofense described a phishing campaign that copied Bitpanda’s branding, sending users through a fake login page and fake multi-factor screens that collected names, phone numbers, addresses and dates of birth. Austrian fact-checker Mimikama has published repeated warnings in 2025 and 2026 about fake “account restricted” emails, SMS messages and a “security hotline” email that tried to get victims to call a phone number.

Bitpanda says it does not make unsolicited calls, does not run phone support, and will never ask for your password or 2FA codes. Treat any call, SMS or email that pushes urgency or a phone number as fraudulent.

Anti-phishing note: the official domain is bitpanda.com. Type it yourself or use a bookmark, and install the app only through the store link on that site. Never use search ads, social-media DMs or “support” accounts. If you have been targeted, report it to Bitpanda through the in-app contact form and to your national police or consumer-fraud authority.

For the wider buying process across platforms, see our guide to buying crypto.

FAQ

Are there Bitpanda scams I should know about?

Yes, but they impersonate Bitpanda rather than come from it. The common versions are emails about “new security standards” or a restricted account, SMS messages with a call-back number, and fake hotlines. Bitpanda says it never phones customers or asks for 2FA codes.

What are Bitpanda’s fees for Bitcoin?

Bitpanda’s crypto cost document dated 8 July 2026 lists a 0.99% trading fee for Bitcoin, calculated on Bitpanda’s firm quote. Any difference between that quote and the market price is an additional, unpublished cost, so compare prices before you confirm a trade.

Can I use Bitpanda in the UK?

Yes, through Bitpanda Broker UK Ltd, which the FCA registered for cryptoasset anti-money-laundering supervision in February 2025. Registration is not full FCA authorisation, and UK crypto holdings do not have Financial Services Compensation Scheme cover.

Did the Bitpanda IPO happen?

Not as of October 2026. The planned first-half 2026 Frankfurt listing did not take place, and in September 2026 the outgoing CEO said it was halted because of market conditions but remained on the agenda. No new date had been announced.

Crypto is volatile and risky; this is education, not financial advice. Do your own research.