Austrian fintech unicorn Bitpanda has obtained its third license under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) from Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA).
According to the Austrian company headquartered in Vienna, this latest approval marks another step toward building Europe’s most regulated crypto platform.
This marks its third approval following previous licenses granted by regulators in Germany and Malta.
Bitpanda works to obtain several licenses to become Europe’s most regulated cryptocurrency platform
MiCA, which came into full effect on December 30, 2024, seeks to provide a single legal framework for crypto asset service providers (CASPs) at the EU level. But Bitpanda’s push to acquire multiple licenses demonstrates discrepancies in how the regulation is being interpreted and implemented across member states.
The exchange was among the first crypto asset service providers (CASPs) to obtain a MiCA license following the full implementation of the regulation.
The company announced on January 23 that Germany’s Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) was the first regulator to grant it a MiCA license.
According to Bitpanda’s announcement on LinkedIn, it subsequently secured another MiCA license from the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA).
The company stated that the second MiCA license, coming shortly after the first, reinforces its position as Europe’s most secure and well-regulated crypto platform.
Meanwhile, Austria’s Financial Market Authority was responsible for granting the fintech unicorn its third MiCA license. Following this, in an announcement on X, the exchange stated that its most recent approval represented another step toward building the most regulated crypto platform in Europe.
However, none of the relevant authorities, the FMA in Austria, the BaFin in Germany, and the MFSA in Malta, kept publicly accessible registries that listed the companies that had been granted MiCA licenses.
Bitpanda’s multi-license strategy tests MiCA’s promise of regulatory unity
According to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the body overseeing key technical details related to MiCA, the regulatory framework was first proposed back in 2020.
It aims to establish a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto asset service providers (CASPs) as well as harmonize market rules throughout the European Union.
However, as MiCA aims to provide a uniform regulatory landscape, Bitpanda’s bid for numerous licenses might tentatively indicate that local applications of legal norms still differ significantly across the states.
Journalists attempted to contact the fintech unicorn to explain its strategy of acquiring multiple MiCA licenses but to no avail.
According to records from Austria’s Financial Market Authority, Bitpanda holds four separate regulatory approvals in Germany and Austria for its affiliated entities: Bitpanda Asset Management GmbH, Bitpanda Financial Services GmbH, Bitpanda GmbH, and Bitpanda Payments GmbH.
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