Tuesday 22 February 2022 2:08 pm | Updated: Wednesday 23 February 2022 1:04 pm

FCA slaps down crypto unicorn Bitpanda’s regulation claims

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Britain’s financial watchdog has poured cold water on Bitpanda’s claims it is able to perform regulated crypto custodian services in the UK.

Bitpanda today announced that it had snapped up Trustology, a digital asset custody platform which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). While the crypto exchange claimed that the acquisition will allow it to perform regulated services in Britain, the UK’s financial watchdog fired back at the comments, clarifying that it is yet to assess the “fitness and propriety” of Bitpanda.

In a statement issued today, the FCA said it was “aware” of certain “statements made by Bitpanda.”

The regulator said that while Trustology was registered with its Anti Money Laundering regime the rules do not “include any provisions that allow the FCA to assess the fitness and propriety of beneficial owners or changes in control before a transaction is completed.”

“The FCA can take steps to suspend or cancel the registration of a cryptoasset business if it is not satisfied the firm or its beneficial owner is fit and proper,” the statement continued.

Welcome to Team Bitpanda, @TrustologyIO!
With this acquisition, we’re safeguarding our Bitpanda and Bitpanda Pro users’ assets with an insured, user-friendly custodial wallet platform with institutional-grade security.

Ready to find out more?👇https://t.co/rIWuOcvx3Y
— Bitpanda (@Bitpanda_global) February 22, 2022

Earlier today Austria-based trading platform Bitpanda published a blog post about improvements to its Custody service facilitated by its new purchase.

“With Bitpanda Custody, we’ve got a well-oiled custodial wallet service that serves to increase our users’ safety and trust in all our products. The fact that we’re now able to perform regulated custodian services in the UK (alongside our existing licences in the EU) also significantly expands our range of services,” the company wrote.

Bitpanda is a registered digital assets service provider with the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA) and with the French Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF).

While Britain’s financial watchdog has a limited role registering UK-based crypto asset companies for anti-money laundering purposes it lacks consumer protection powers for digital assets.