Bitpanda, an Austrian-based cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform, is working with Coinbase (COIN) to link the U.S.-listed exchange powerhouse with European banks seeking to provide consumers with access to digital assets.
With the help of the recently announced agreement, Coinbase will be able to link directly to banks and fintech companies using Bitpanda Technology Solutions, a provider of business-to-business infrastructure layers.
Banks want to be able to sell cryptocurrency to consumers, according to BitPanda COO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, despite the negative crypto winter and the harm done to the asset class’ image by last year’s explosions and failures. Since the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) legal framework has been approved, this is particularly true in Europe, he continued.
According to Enzersdorfer-Konrad, “Coinbase has a liquidity venue with their exchange and they have the custody setup.” “However, they lack the complete middle layer of infrastructure that a partner can integrate and offer crypto traded and purchased on the Coinbase exchange and stored on Coinbase Custody to their end customers,” the author continues.
With a variety of banks, neo-banks, and fintech platforms, including Austrian conventional lender Raiffeisenlandesbank, European mobile bank N26, French money app Lydia, U.K. fintech Plum, and Italian mobile bank Hype, Bitpanda already has cryptocurrency connection in place.
“Banks can see the data on their payment transactions and how much of their customers’ funds have been flowing out to cryptocurrency companies,” Enzersdorfer-Konrad added. They are aware of the amount of business they are losing out on and the number of customers who would engage in that business if they had sufficient faith in the system.
According to Guillaume Chatain, head of Institutional Sales for Coinbase’s EMEA & APAC regions, “[Coinbase is] delighted to partner with BitPanda to jointly service institutions looking to bring the market and their customers compliant, robust crypto services.”
