TL;DR
- Bitpanda received a €70,000 fine from Austria’s FMA, marking the first sanctions case under the MiCA regulation in the country.
- The violation consisted of failing to submit the white paper at least 20 business days in advance and omitting mandatory disclosures in marketing materials.
- The company stated that the breaches were exclusively formal and procedural, that no client suffered financial harm, and that it remedied the situation immediately.
Austria’s financial markets regulator, the FMA, fined Bitpanda €70,000 for violations of the European regulation on crypto-asset markets, known as MiCA. This is the first sanctions case published under that regulatory framework in the country, and the amount is equivalent to approximately $82,000.
According to the FMA, the Vienna-based company did not submit the white paper for a crypto asset to the regulator at least 20 business days before its publication, as required by MiCA. The authority did not identify the token in question. Additionally, Bitpanda distributed a marketing communication before publishing the required white paper, constituting a second violation.
A third communication omitted mandatory disclosures: it did not state that the document had not been reviewed or approved by a competent authority, nor that the company was solely responsible for its content. A phone number and email address required by the regulation were also missing.
Bitpanda: Exclusively Formal Breaches
The company responded through a statement in which it maintained that the regulator’s observations “related exclusively to deadlines and formal specifications surrounding the publication of the white paper and a supplementary information document.” Bitpanda stated it had prepared a comprehensive white paper in compliance with MiCA requirements, had submitted it to the FMA, and had coordinated the process continuously with the authority. It also noted that the white paper in question was submitted in early 2025. The company opted for a swift and consensual conclusion of the proceedings, and the sanctions decision is final and non-appealable.
Bitpanda closed 2025 with 7.4 million registered users, 25% more than the previous year, and adjusted revenues of €371 million. The company obtained its MiCA license from Germany’s BaFin regulator, allowing it to operate throughout the European Economic Area. Meanwhile, Austria’s FMA authorized the exchange in April 2025 to provide custody, exchange, and order execution services, among others. The case sets a precedent for how MiCA will be enforced in practice by national regulators across the European bloc.
