Bitpanda fined €70,000 in Austria’s first published MiCA enforcement case
45 min ago
2 min read
Summary
- Austria’s FMA fined Bitpanda €70,000 for MiCA breaches, marking the regulator's first penalty under the EU’s new crypto asset rules.
- The fine stems from Bitpanda failing to submit a mandatory white paper 20 days before publication and omitting required disclosures in marketing materials.
- Bitpanda characterized the violations as "timing and formal specifications" and has since corrected the issues following a "consensual conclusion.”
Austria’s Financial Market Authority fined Bitpanda GmbH 70,000 euros ($81,150) for breaches of the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation in the regulator’s first penalty over the rules.
The FMA said Bitpanda failed to submit a cryptocurrency white paper at least 20 working days before publishing it. The regulator did not identify the cryptocurrency involved.
Bitpanda also circulated a marketing communication before publishing the required white paper. Another communication omitted a statement that regulators had not reviewed or approved the document and that the provider was solely responsible for its contents, as well as a telephone number and email address.
The firm told CoinDesk in an emailed statement the regulator’s findings “related exclusively to timing and formal specifications surrounding the publication of the whitepaper and an accompanying information document.”
“For the token launch in question, we prepared a comprehensive whitepaper in accordance with MiCAR requirements, submitted it to the FMA, and continuously coordinated the entire process with the authority,” Bitpanda said. “The points cited related exclusively to timing and formal specifications surrounding the publication of the whitepaper and an accompanying information document.”
The white paper was submitted early last year, the firm told CoinDesk.
Bitpanda said it fixed the issues after the FMA raised them and chose a “swift, consensual conclusion” to the proceedings.
The regulator concluded the proceedings through an expedited process under Austria’s Financial Market Authority Act, and the penalty is final.
The move targets one of Europe’s largest crypto brokers. Bitpanda ended 2025 with 7.4 million registered users, up 25% from a year earlier, and 371 million euros in adjusted revenue. The Vienna-based company has been expanding outside Europe by providing trading, custody and tokenization infrastructure to banks and fintech companies.
Bitpanda secured a MiCA license from German regulator BaFin last year, allowing it to serve customers across the European Economic Area. Austria’s FMA separately authorized Bitpanda GmbH to provide custody, exchange, order execution and other crypto services in April 2025.
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