Bitpanda enters into partnership with Raiffeisenbank Niederösterreich-Wien

Mila April 26, 2023

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Looking at the course of Bitcoin, one might think that the crypto winter is over: Since the beginning of the year, the value of the cyber currency has risen by 65 percent. Bitcoin is celebrating its comeback. A good time for the Vienna crypto exchange Bitpanda to announce a new partnership: The trading platform is starting a cooperation with the Raiffeisenbank Niederösterreich-Wien, as the WirtschaftsWoche learned in advance. In the future, Raiffeisenbank customers will also be able to use the Bitpanda service via the in-house platform – i.e. trade in cryptocurrencies, shares and ETFs.

Bitpanda intends to announce further collaborations in the coming months, announces founder Eric Demuth. A double-digit number of banks and fintechs are currently in talks or are about to sign contracts – including providers from Germany. Demuth has not yet revealed what these are.

In January, Bitpanda and the Berlin neobank N26 announced a partnership. Here, too, the crypto exchange provides the technical infrastructure with which N26 customers can trade Bitcoin and Co. via the app. “After the cooperation with N26, more traditional banks want to offer crypto transactions,” says Demuth.

Bitpanda is thus benefiting from a trend that has been observed for some time: more and more banks want to get into the crypto business. They probably have to if they don’t want to lose any customers in the medium term. Many investors have included cryptocurrencies in their investment strategy.

Criticism of crypto: “Go to the casino”

According to a study by the Statista Global Consumer Survey, one in ten people in Germany is already investing in Bitcoin and Co. At 29 percent, the proportion of crypto investors under the age of 30 is particularly high. If banks do not make them crypto offers, they run the risk of losing these customers to neobrokers and other fintechs.

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However, there is no complete agreement in the banking industry on how to deal with Bitcoin and Co. A dispute broke out over the past year. The President of the German Savings Banks and Giro Association, Helmut Schleweis, criticized crypto systems as “going to the casino” and advised institutes against offering such products.

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However, the association cannot forbid its members to do so. And so some Volksbanks and savings banks have already started trading in digital currencies. The Volksbank Bayern-Mitte in particular stands out here: it has been offering the VR-BitcoinGoCard, a type of giro card on which the users’ crypto assets are stored, for a good year now. The coins are not held by a provider, but customers are responsible for safekeeping themselves.

However, most banks introduce crypto products through cooperations. The Volksbank Kurpfalz, for example, works together with the Stuttgart Stock Exchange. Such cooperations are easier for the banks because they do not have to set up their own technical infrastructure, but can use that of their partners.

Cooperation also has advantages for crypto companies like Bitpanda. Not only because crypto assets could shed their sleazy image by working with established banks. Such partnerships are also a lucrative source of income without much additional effort. Bitpanda is hoping for a leverage effect: the deal with Raiffeisenbank Niederösterreich-Wien increases its reach by over 250,000 additional potential customers. The platform currently has four million users.

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