Bitpanda bets MiCA's EU passport turns one license into 27 markets; revenue hits €371M

Bitpanda is a Vienna-based multi-asset investment platform (crypto, stocks, ETFs, precious metals) founded in 2014 by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer. It combines a retail broker with a B2B infrastructure arm that lets banks and fintechs white-label its trading rails; by 2025 it offered more than 650 digital assets.

That MiCA would turn licensing from a per-country cost into one EU-wide passport, letting a licensed platform scale across 27 markets without rebuilding compliance.

$52M Series A (2020) and $170M Series B at a $1.2B valuation led by Valar Ventures (Mar 2021) made Bitpanda Austria's first unicorn; a $263M round at a $4.1B valuation followed in Aug 2021.

Bitpanda was founded in Vienna in 2014 and grew into one of Europe's largest crypto brokers, reaching 6M users by end-2024. When MiCA took full effect on Dec 30 2024, Bitpanda made passporting its growth strategy: on Jan 27 2025 it announced it was one of the first major crypto companies to receive a MiCA license, issued by Germany's BaFin, valid across all 27 EU states.

Bitpanda then stacked licenses rather than stopping at one: a second MiCA license from Malta's MFSA followed, and on Apr 10 2025 Austria's FMA awarded a third. Rivals and press questioned why a passporting regime required three licenses; deputy CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad said MiCAR allows passporting but national regulators did not launch simultaneously, and that the multi-license setup was the 'most robust MiCAR setup in the industry'. Meanwhile the company kept building: margin trading on 100+ crypto assets, staking on 50+, a web3 wallet, and entry into Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

The bet is paying off so far. FY2025: adjusted revenue €371M ($430M), up 16%; registered users up 25% to 7.4M; B2B partners up from 9 to 16. Bitpanda also added crypto licenses in the UK and UAE. Adjusted EBITDA fell from €52M to €13M as the company deliberately invested in product, regulation and international expansion.

MiCA made the regulatory stack itself the wedge: one BaFin license legally opened all 27 member states, which is exactly what a broker needs to scale.

Bitpanda was already a licensed, compliance-heavy platform, so the harmonized regime rewarded its existing cost base instead of punishing it.

Stacking Germany, Malta and Austria licenses shows the bet was proactive: it chose the hardest-credentialed position before competitors finished their first application.

The 2025 results (€371M revenue, 7.4M users) and the 9-to-16 growth in B2B partners show the passport fed both the retail and the institutional business.

A harmonizing regulation can turn compliance into a moat: first movers with the new license get a passport competitors must match.

As of Sep 2026 Bitpanda is live and growing under its MiCA setup: FY2025 revenue €371M (+16%), 7.4M registered users (+25%), 16 B2B partners, and additional licenses in the UK and UAE, with expansion into Latin America and Asia-Pacific underway. The €13M adjusted EBITDA for 2025 (down from €52M in 2024) reflects deliberate investment rather than deterioration. MiCA itself has become the EU's baseline for crypto; the main open question is how national regulators converge in practice, which is exactly why Bitpanda's multi-license approach may keep paying off.