Vienna-based Bitpanda raises €43.6M through an Initial Exchange Offering (IEO), launches a crypto exchange that allows fiat-to-crypto trading in 54+ countries
Thomas Ohr / EU-Startups :
Context & Ripple Effects
In August 2019, Bitpanda bypassed venture capital entirely, raising €43.6M through an initial exchange offering sold on its own platform while launching fiat-to-crypto trading across 54+ countries. The move put Vienna on the European exchange map just months after Berlin rival Bitwala raised a €13M Series A for its crypto-banking product, and two years after Tokyo's bitFlyer entered Europe with an EU-wide payment institution license.
What followed validated the bet: Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures led a $52M Series A within about a year, then a $170M Series B that made Bitpanda Austria's first unicorn, and eventually a $263M round at a $4.1B valuation. By 2023 the institutional arm had spun out entirely as One Trading under Valar's lead.
First-order effects
- Retail traders in 54+ countries gain a direct fiat on-ramp to crypto through Bitpanda's new exchange, competing head-on with bitFlyer's licensed European operation.
- Bitpanda proves the IEO model as a primary fundraising route, raising €43.6M from its own user base instead of selling equity to investors.
Second-order effects
- US capital takes notice of the European retail crypto market: Valar Ventures moves in with successive rounds, shifting Bitpanda's cap table from community-sold tokens toward Silicon Valley ownership.
- Rivals like Bitwala, which had just raised €13M for crypto banking, face pressure to match Bitpanda's breadth of country coverage and fiat payment rails.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, European crypto platforms split along customer lines — Bitpanda's Pro arm separating into One Trading shows retail brokerages and institutional exchanges diverging into distinct businesses even under shared backers.
- Exchange-native fundraising (IEOs) emerges as a structural alternative to venture capital for crypto firms, though the later dominance of Valar's equity rounds suggests it complements rather than replaces traditional backing.
The trend: European crypto trading is consolidating around multi-country fiat-to-crypto platforms backed by US venture capital, with Vienna emerging as a hub alongside Berlin and bitFlyer's licensed entry.