Bitpanda Pro, a popular Austrian-based crypto exchange , announced today (Wednesday) a rebranding and the successful completion of a financing round amounting to EUR 30 million. According to customer information, the name has been changed to One Trading.
From an email sent to Finance Magnates, it appears that the name was changed to prevent future confusion for customers between Bitpanda and One Trading.
Bitpanda Pro Becomes One Trading
Bitpanda Pro is a platform independent of Bitpanda retail brokerage, launched in 2019 to provide a regulated and secure place to exchange digital assets. Bitpanda decided to rename Bitpanda Pro to One Trading but will retain a minority stake in the venture. However, the value of this stake has not been disclosed.
"Since we first launched Bitpanda Pro, given its potential, we always knew and planned that its success would naturally make it evolve to become its own business," Eric Demuth, the CEO of Bitpanda, stated in a press release.
Today's press release speaks of a successful funding round worth EUR 30 million, led by Valar Ventures, a venture capital co-founded by the well-known cryptocurrency entrepreneur Peter Thiel.
Our rebranding is a major step to strengthen our crypto asset offerings and addressing the lack of regulated venues in Europe 🇪🇺 we plan to launch various sophisticated products, like derivatives & more spot crypto assets, catering to both retail and institutional investors. 💪
— One Trading (@onetrading_com) June 28, 2023
Although Bitpanda Pro was renamed, its current CEO, Joshua Barraclough, will retain his position and steer the new venture.
"We want to make crypto trading safe and accessible for all and bridge the gap to provide an institutional-grade platform for all customer types," Barraclough said.
Bitpanda will retain a stake in the business, but the new company will be fully separated from the main Bitpanda group and continue to develop advanced trading products for retail investors, professionals and institutional customers.
— Bitpanda (@Bitpanda_global) June 28, 2023
Learn more: https://t.co/0RzqzmvsE2
One Trading has made significant changes to the existing Bitpanda Pro infrastructure, aiming to allow users to create and cancel orders in less than 250 microseconds. The company further promises low fees, deep order books, and liquidity protection. At the same time, it wants to offer a membership model rather than the traditional pay-per-transaction model.
Scheduled Service Maintenance
In a Reddit thread, a user named 'gitarr' reported that Bitpanda Pro customers received emails about rebranding on Wednesday. In addition, some Twitter users have stated that such a significant change should have been communicated earlier.
Comment
by u/gitarr from discussion Bitpanda Pro Exchange is sold and rebranded to One Trading - Assets currently cannot be withdrawn
in CryptoCurrency
The website 'exchange.bitpanda.com', which until now directed to Bitpanda Pro, now leads to 'exchange.onetrading.com' (One Trading). Although the site is now functioning normally, trading is still suspended, and users cannot withdraw funds. Neither blockchain withdrawals nor the Bitpanda Pro mobile application is working.
However, according to information emailed to Finance Magnates, the service interruption was anticipated. The platform announced a maintenance window in line with the best industry practices.
"All markets will shortly reopen and all functionality will be restored," the company commented.
Bitpanda said it was tied up with Coinbase a month ago to help the cryptocurrency exchange with the European expansion. The American exchange is using Bitpanda's services to cater to non-US institutions.