Bitpanda Pro Rebrands, Raises $33M in Peter Thiel-Led Round

Austria-based One Trading, the digital asset exchange formerly known as Bitpanda Pro, has announced a successful €30 million (roughly $33 million) funding round as it separates entirely from Bitpanda. The new platform plans to expand its crypto asset offerings for retail and institutional investors throughout Europe. The raise was led by Valar Ventures, co-founded by billionaire entrepreneur Peter Thiel, and featured participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock and Wintermute Ventures.

Bitpanda initially launched Bitpanda Pro in 2019 to provide a secure and regulated platform for retail traders, finance professionals and institutions. The company – which hit a $4.1 billion valuation during a funding round in Aug. 2021 – will retain an undisclosed minority stake in One Trading.

"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," said Eric Demuth, CEO of Bitpanda, in a press release.

One Trading will continue to be led by Bitpanda Pro CEO Joshua Barraclough, who joined Bitpanda in late 2021 after a stint as co-head of digital innovation at JPMorgan in London. One Trading aims to offer complex crypto products such as derivatives and spot trading for both institutional and retail customers.

“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 in the press release

To achieve this goal, One Trading has implemented significant infrastructure changes to launch a fast and scalable exchange where orders can be created and canceled in under 250 microseconds. One Trading will also offer low fees and deep order books for retail customers plus liquidity protections.The platform hopes to attract large liquidity providers through a membership model rather than the traditional pay-per-trade model.

One Trading intends to operate as a European Union-compliant Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID)Trading Venue, which would enhance its existing Virtual Asset Service Provider(VASP) license. The framework would allow One Trading to provide capital-efficient spot and derivative trading to all customers. The platform would also have the ability to list financial instruments and design new products.