Bitpanda hails from Vienna, Austria, and since launching in 2014 it has become one of the most reliable options for Europe-based traders looking to purchase Bitcoin. Formerly known as Coinimal, Bitpanda is one of the continent’s most prominent brokers, built by three crypto-enthusiasts who experienced first-hand how hard it was to buy crypto in Europe in 2013.
The Positives
- Bitpanda is one of the easiest and most user-friendly platforms in the entire crypto-sphere, with some arguing that it is even easier and more seamless to use than Coinbase. Their liquidity is very high too.
- AML5 compliance helps to improve legitimacy for the platform and for crypto in general, however, it does reduce user privacy.
- The platform is not regulated by any financial regulatory agency.
- The exchange’s funds are stored in secure cold wallets offline.
- Deposit and withdrawal options include credit card, NETELLER, Skrill, Sofort, GIROPAY, SEPA, EPS, Amazon.de gift card, and Bitpanda to go.
- There is a daily credit card purchase limit of €10,000. SEPA daily deposits and withdrawals are limited up to €500,000.
- Bitpanda users can send digital assets to each another absolutely free of charge.
- Security features include two-factor authentication, a log of active devices and sessions, the ability to log out and close a running session via another device, DDOS protection and SSL encryption.
- Rather than having a dozen VIP tiers and a confusing system of discounts for large-volume traders, Bitpanda offers the same fees to all users trading up to €1m. After that, the BitPanda Plus service gives whales access to an OTC area with special discounts.
- Primarily a Euro exchange, Bitpanda also accepts British Pounds, Polish Zloty, US Dollars, Swiss Francs, and Turkish Lira.
- Bitpanda has popular apps for Android and iOS.
- The top exchange in the German-speaking world, and would arguably dominate the rest of Europe if their fees were lower.
- Customer service is highly rated, despite no live chat or phone option. Instead, they offer a well-run 24/7 email ticket support centre.
- Bitpanda has never been hacked, compromised, or lost funds, allowing them to build a solid and trustworthy relationship with customers.
The Negatives
- KYC and AML are required by law, which means users will have to provide personal documents if they want to deposit or withdraw fiat currency.
- The platform has pretty expensive fees for buying crypto directly (1.49%), which is one of the biggest gripes that users can have.
- Bitpanda offers only a custodial hot wallet, so users are recommended to store their crypto elsewhere.
- There are no stop or limit orders on Bitpanda, so, as they say, they are a broker-come-retailer and not a full exchange. This basically means you have to pay the current price at the rate that they tell you. If you want to analyse charts and data, you are in the wrong place.
- Bitpanda offers just a 1:1 leverage.
- Purchases using a currency other than Euros will result in a currency exchange transaction on top of a cryptocurrency exchange, which may create undesired results for users.
- The total fees on the platform are ambiguous, with users estimated that with the purchase costs and the spread combined, total transaction costs are around 5%.
- Fact check: Their website states ‘With Bitcoin premiums at 1.49% (buy and sell), Bitpanda is the cheapest place for buying and selling Bitcoin instantly’. This simply isn’t true, there are plenty of platforms with lower fees, including Crypto.com and Coinbase Pro.
Which cryptocurrencies can you find on Bitpanda?
Bitpanda offers almost 50 well-known cryptocurrencies:
- Bitcoin
- Ethereum,
- BEST
- XRP
- Pantos
- Bitcoin Cash
- IOTA
- Litecoin
- Komodo
- EOS
- Dash
- OmiseGO
- Augur
- Stellar
- 0x
- NEM
- ZCash
- Tezos
- Cardano
- NEO
- Ethereum Classic
- Chainlink
- Waves
- Lisk
- Tether
- USD Coin
- Cosmos
- TRON
- Basic Attention Token
- Chiliz
- Dogecoin
- Ontology
- Qtum
- VeChain
- yearn.finance
- Synthetix Network Token
- Polkadot
- Compound
- Maker
- Uniswap
- Filecoin
- Uma
- Aav
- Ren
- Band Protocol
- Kyber Network
Some more information on fees
Bitpanda’s brokerage fees are quite expensive for the market, but that’s mostly due to their third-party relationships and costs, such as credit cards and payment gateways. As a result of their expenses, Bitpanda’s brokerage costs are:
- 1.49% to buy from them
- 1.29% to sell to them
The final say
For Europe based-customers looking to enter the crypto space, Bitpanda is a pretty solid option. Of course, the fees are a bit high, and the trading interface means you have to do things at current price, but that’s quite standard for a broker. If your mission as a European newcomer is to get your hands on some cryptocurrency and to pay with Euros, Bitpanda is probably the best platform you can use. Once you’ve got your crypto, you need to move it to an exchange that isn’t taking such a big slice on transactions.
