Cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, are witnessing strong price volatility
Austrian cryptocurrency brokerage Bitpanda said on Tuesday it had raised $263 million against a valuation of $4.1 billion in a funding round led by Valar Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by billionaire Peter Thiel.
The new round more than triples the broker’s valuation as of March, when it raised $170 million against a valuation of $1.2 billion. British hedge fund manager Alan Howard, REDO Ventures, LeadBlock Partners and Jump Capital also invested in the current round.
While cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, have witnessed strong price volatility, they are slowly being adopted by larger companies. That surge had pushed the valuation of another crypto exchange Coinbase to $112 billion when it made its market debut in April.
The fintech space has seen a lot of crazy valuations as there aren’t many good companies out there and investors don’t want to miss out, said Eric Demuth, Bitpanda’s chief executive officer. “We’ve been profitable for five years now, consistently, every year.”
Bitpanda, which currently has 3 million users and a presence in eight European countries, plans to aggressively expand to other countries this year.
The platform gives users the flexibility to invest in a range of products such as fractional stocks, cryptocurrencies and precious metals – starting at just $1.
Demuth said the company has no plans at this point to go public, but when it decides it will prefer direct listing, as will companies such as Coinbase, RobinHood and Wise.
“We take the time for that.”
