Austria fines Bitpanda €70,000 in first MiCA penalty

Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA) imposed a €70,000 fine on crypto exchange Bitpanda on August 14 for failing to notify a required whitepaper at least 20 days before a token was admitted to trading and for issuing a marketing notice without publishing the whitepaper. The authority described the sanction as the first legally binding enforcement under the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) framework.

The regulator cited breaches of MiCA Article 8, which requires issuers to notify authorities 20 days before a token listing, and MiCA Article 1, which requires a published whitepaper prior to marketing. The fine followed the end of MiCA’s grandfathering period on July 1, 2026.

Bitpanda received one of the first MiCA licences, granted by Germany’s BaFin in January 2025 and by Austria’s FMA in April 2025.

According to the regulator, MiCA creates a uniform legal framework across the EU and gives national authorities the power to supervise and sanction breaches. The regulator added: “Innovation and consistent enforcement are not mutually exclusive. Transparency and investor protection regulations are essential components of this legal framework.”

Legal adviser Markus Miller of Miller Protect AG questioned Bitpanda’s regulatory standing after the fine, stating that “a license only builds trust if the rules behind it are consistently followed.”

The authority added it will apply MiCA rules uniformly to all virtual asset service providers operating in Austria and said it supports the development of a regulated market for crypto assets while enforcing transparency and investor protection requirements.