Bitpanda Fined €70,000 as Austria Publishes First MiCAR Enforcement Case
Austria’s Financial Market Authority has fined Bitpanda GmbH EUR 70,000 for breaching the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, and the regulator says it is the first such decision it has made public. The FMA disclosed the ruling on Friday, according to both Cointelegraph and Finance Magnates, which each covered the case on August 17.
The penalty is not about stolen funds or frozen withdrawals. It is about paperwork and marketing timing. The FMA said Bitpanda was required to hand the regulator a crypto-asset white paper no later than 20 working days ahead of publication, a deadline the company missed — a lapse Finance Magnates reports the regulator tied specifically to Article 8 of MiCAR. Bitpanda also distributed a marketing communication before the required white paper was published, both outlets reported. A separate marketing communication, the FMA said, failed to disclose that no competent authority had reviewed or signed off on it and that responsibility for its content rested solely with the crypto-asset provider. That communication also lacked a required telephone number and email address, according to both outlets.
The case was resolved through an expedited procedure. Finance Magnates reports the FMA closed the proceeding under Section 22(2b) of Austria’s Financial Market Authority Act, and that the decision is now final and legally binding.
Where the two outlets agree
Cointelegraph and Finance Magnates align on the substance of the violations: the late white paper, the premature marketing, and the missing disclosures and contact details in a separate marketing communication. Both describe the FMA’s characterization of this as its first published MiCAR penalty decision. Both note the expedited nature of the proceeding.
Where the numbers diverge
The two outlets convert the EUR 70,000 fine to different dollar figures. Cointelegraph put it at roughly $82,000. Finance Magnates put it at about $81,000. Neither outlet explains the exchange rate or timestamp behind its conversion, and the discrepancy is unresolved.
What Cointelegraph did not report
Finance Magnates carries several details absent from Cointelegraph’s coverage. The FMA’s notice, per Finance Magnates, did not name the crypto asset involved, did not reproduce the marketing communication in question, and did not provide the relevant publication dates — leaving the specific product at the center of the case unidentified.
Finance Magnates also reports that the FMA issued a separate statement explaining why it chose to publish the case, and in doing so cautioned against over-reading the label. The regulator said publication does not confer any special status on the company or the violations, and that earlier MiCAR-licensed exchanges facing penalties were not necessarily subject to MiCAR cases themselves. As an example, Finance Magnates cites Malta’s 2025 fine of EUR 1.1 million against OKX’s European entity — imposed under anti-money-laundering rules, not MiCAR, for failures that predated OKX’s MiCAR license.
Finance Magnates additionally reports that Bitpanda was authorized as a crypto-asset service provider in Austria on April 9, 2025, covering custody, exchange, order execution and transfers, and that the company separately obtained MiCAR authorization from Germany’s BaFin in January 2025. The FMA’s authorization page, per Finance Magnates, still lists Bitpanda GmbH as approved to operate in Austria. Finance Magnates also reports that Bitpanda, in a June 23 company post, said strict enforcement was necessary to protect the market and described itself as fully compliant.
Company response
Cointelegraph said it contacted Bitpanda for comment on the FMA penalty but had not received a response at the time of publication. Neither outlet reports a Bitpanda statement addressing this specific fine.
What remains unresolved
The identity of the crypto asset behind the white paper and marketing failures has not been disclosed by the FMA, per Finance Magnates. The exact dollar value of the fine is contested between the two outlets. And whether other EU national regulators are sitting on unpublished MiCAR enforcement actions that would predate Austria’s case is not addressed by either report.
Sources
Every fact above is attributed to one of these reports. Where they disagree, the article says so.
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