Crypto fintech Bitpanda acquires UK custody provider

The Trustology acquisition is an important step in Bitpanda’s plan to launch a prime brokerage offering under Bitpanda Pro

Crypto fintech Bitpanda has acquired London-based institutional custodian wallet provider Trustology.

Trustology has been rebranded as Bitpanda Custody, allowing the Vienna-based fintech to offer regulated crypto and DeFi custody wallet services in the UK and the EU.

Founded in 2014 in Austria, the crypto fintech claims to remove barriers to investing by harnessing digitised assets and blockchain technology. It now has more than 700 employees spread across 10 offices, with over three million users reportedly using its platform.

The Trustology acquisition is an important step in Bitpanda’s plan to launch a prime brokerage offering under Bitpanda Pro to go alongside its digital asset exchange, where investors can trade cryptocurrencies and assets.

Joshua Barraclough, chief executive officer at Bitpanda Pro, explains: “Bitpanda Custody is part of our strategy to offer a fully comprehensive set of services to our client base and we can now combine [a regulated] institutional-grade custody solution with a leading trade execution venue.” 

“Recently, we have invested a lot in upgrading Bitpanda Pro exchange as well as boosting our liquidity partnerships, so that we can compete with the largest exchanges on execution capabilities. Now we are looking to massively increase our footprint and bring lots more clients to our venues. Importantly we are moving away from an asset under custody pricing model and are not penalising our clients’ growth.”

Bitpanda Custody will initially take custody of the fintech’s own assets across its retail, institutional and whitelabelling businesses.

Commenting on the acquisition, Eric Demuth, co-founder and chief executive officer of Bitpanda, says: “Bitpanda Custody brings us one step closer to building a leading, fully regulated and secure digital investment platform for everyone, new investors and professionals alike.” 

“We can now provide retail customers with world-class institutional-grade custody security, and institutional clients will benefit from innovative custody solutions in order not to only overcome the challenges they face today, but also thrive in the years to come.”

Alex Batlin, founder and chief executive officer of Trustology, adds: “We are really excited to press the Bitpanda turbo button in its mission to make institutional crypto custody safer, faster and easier.”

Image: Shutterstock

Mark Dugdale