Competition in the European crypto exchange market is about to become more heated as Austria-based digital investment platform Bitpanda said it secured a USD 52m investment to support its expansion in the old continent.
The company said it closed “Europe’s largest Series A funding round of 2020” by securing the investment in a round led by Valar Ventures, a New York-based venture firm, co-founded by Peter Thiel, Co-founder of PayPal.
“Our goal is to become the leading investment and trading platform in Europe, not only for the people who are already familiar with trading but for everyone. This funding will help us do just that and, crucially, continue to recruit some of the world’s leading talent to our team,” Eric Demuth, Co-Founder and CEO of Bitpanda, was quoted as saying in a press release.
“Interest in investing has grown massively over the past few years and, with people spending more time at home as a result of the pandemic, this has only accelerated,” Andrew McCormack, Founding Partner of Valar Ventures, who will also join Bitpanda’s board, added.
Bitpanda, founded in 2014, said it already expanded to France, Spain, and Turkey in 2020 and will enter additional, unspecified European markets this year and next. The company aims to increase its staff from the current 230 to 300 by the end of this year.
The platform, which is focused on digital assets and precious metals trading, claims that it has over 1.3m users that have access to 44 investment assets. Also, the company said it launched payments and savings platforms this year and will use the new funding to build “more innovative ways of trading and investing.”
The company also operates Bitpanda Pro, a crypto exchange focused on professionals and institutions. At the time of writing, the 24-hour trading volume on this platform surpassed USD 2m.
Bitpanda offers its users the Bitpanda Ecosystem Token (BEST). It trades at USD 0.09 and is unchanged in a day (08:26 UTC).
BEST price chart:
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