Accounting firm KPMG has signed off that Bitpanda’s funds “exceed customer holdings following a special review held in light of the recent FTX collapse.”
Bitpanda is in active exchange with the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), which regularly “audits the company.” However, this “extraordinary,” additional agreed upon procedure was “conducted voluntarily.”
Bitpanda commissioned KPMG “to perform an agreed-upon procedure for the top 5 crypto assets by AUM – BTC (Bitcoin), ETH (Ethereum), ADA (Cardano) XRP (Ripple) and DOGE (Doge).” On November 18, 2022, KPMG signed-off “that crypto funds for BTC, ETH, ADA, XRP, and DOGE held in Bitpanda’s cold storage exceed all accumulated customer holdings.”
Eric Demuth, CEO and co-founder of Bitpanda, said:
“FTX’s fast and loose approach to customer safety will damage the crypto industry’s reputation for a long time. However, this agreed-upon procedure by KPMG is further proof that we will always put the trust of our customers and the safety of their funds first.”
Eric added:
“This review is just the latest example of the many steps we take in order to guarantee these two guiding principles.At Bitpanda, we place paramount importance on protecting our customers and recognise the inherent value of regulatory compliance – and we truly believe that this has to become the standard in the industry we’re operating in.”
The results of the procedures performed by KPMG “can be requested by Bitpanda customers on Bitpanda’s website.”
Bitpanda was founded in 2014 “as a crypto trading platform by Eric Demuth, Paul Klanschek and Christian Trummer.” Austria’s “most valuable” fintech company “has grown into Europe’s leading investment platform with nearly 4 million investors, offering people the freedom and flexibility to invest in Europe’s largest selection of digital assets around the clock, depending on their budget and risk tolerance.”
Bitpanda customers are “the beneficial owner of their crypto assets and the company holds them in custody, as a trustee.” It’s their investment, their assets – Bitpanda just “keeps them safe.” All crypto assets are “held in a highly-secure storage environment and they are regularly audited by an external auditor.”
As a result, if something goes wrong, the customer “cannot be treated as an unsecured creditor and is not risking to lose assets.” Instead, the customer “asserts the right of separation under Austrian law.”
The Bitpanda Group diligently “follows European law and regulation. In addition to being licensed to hold and trade cryptocurrencies for its own account the Bitpanda Group is also registered with the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), the French Autorité Des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the Czech Trade Authority as VASP, holds the PSD2 license, the MiFID II licence and became Austria’s first Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in accordance with European law (EMD2), plus has a fully AML5 compliant KYC process.”
Furthermore Bitpanda “became the first foreign crypto provider to become fully licensed in Sweden, and also secured registration with the Italian Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP) and the Bank of Spain.”
Through Bitpanda Custody, a crypto-asset custody provider registered with the FCA, the Group is also “able to provide custody services in the United Kingdom in addition to Bitpanda’s existing licenses and registrations in the European Union.”