Bitpanda announces a global crypto exchange
Vienna-based startup Bitpanda,
formerly Coinimal, has announced that it will be launching a new cryptocurrency
exchange, the company said on Wednesday. Dubbed the Bitpanda Global Exchange, the
platform will allow experienced traders, professionals and institutions to
conduct crypto-to-crypto and fiat-to-crypto trades, and is scheduled to launch
in August.
Founded in 2014, Bitpanda is a brokerage platform that
allows users to buy, sell and store cryptocurrencies and digital assets
including bitcoin, ether, as well as digitized gold, in Europe. The company
claims around one million users and more than a hundred employees.
“Offering experienced users a way to trade digital assets
and building the largest euro exchange is the next logical step for us,” said Eric
Demuth, CEO of Bitpanda. “Bitpanda has been around since 2014 and we are a key
player in Europe. We can build on a lot of synergies and experience.”
The Bitpanda Global Exchange will launch with support of popular
trading pairs such as BTC/EUR, BTC/USDT, ETH/EUR, XRP/EUR, MIOTA/EUR, ETH/BTC,
XRP/BTC, MIOTA/BTC, PAN/BTC, BEST/BTC, BEST/EUR and BEST/USDT, and more to come
in the future, the company said. Verified users will be able to deposit euro,
Swiss franc and British pound.
The platform will have its own token, called the Bitpanda
Ecosystem Token (BEST), which will offer users benefits and perks within the ecosystem,
including reduced trading fees, priority access to the upcoming Bitpanda
Launchpad, as well as the ability to launch third-party initial exchange
offerings (IEOs).
“BEST will play a vital role in Bitpanda’s global expansion
and in making our vision of democratizing personal finance and investing,”
Demuth said. “BEST is the fuel of the Bitpanda ecosystem, which means that the
Bitpanda platform, the Bitpanda Global Exchange and future products like the
Bitpanda Launchpad will make heavy use of incorporating BEST.”
In April, Bitpanda was
granted the Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) license by the Austrian
financial market authority (FMA). PSD2 is a directive by the European Union
(EU) that regulates payment service providers throughout the European Union (EU)
and the whole European Economic Area (EEA).
With the license in hand, the company said it will launch “exciting
features and products in the coming months.”
“Our goal is to bridge the gap between the modern and
traditional financial world. The payment service provider license will allow us
to tear barriers down,” said Philipp Bohrn, one of the two managing directors
of Bitpanda Payments, a new
division the company launched last year.
Source: coinjournal.net