Bitpanda is an Austrian based cryptocurrency exchange that lets you buy and sell more than thirty different cryptocurrencies using Euros, Dollars, British Pounds or Swiss Francs.

Bitpanda operates two platforms. The Bitpanda Global Exchange and the Bitpanda Platform.

Bitpanda Global Exchange is targeted towards more advanced traders, featuring trading charts and the ability to make customized buy/sell orders. Bitpanda Platform on the other hand, is easier to use, offers multiple payment methods (credit card, SOFORT, iDEAL etc.) and is therefore significantly more expensive.

The good news: you can access both platforms with the same account.

Bitpanda Metals

Bitpanda has a couple of features that make it stand out in the market. One is definitely its Metals offering. Using Bitpanda you can buy precious metals such as gold. silver, platinum and palladium in digitzed form. This allows you to diversify your portfolio and use Bitpanda for more of your financial needs than just crypto investing.

The metals are kept in vaults in Switzerland for you and 100% insured. For the first 20g (200g of Silver) you don't have to pay any storage premium. For all holdings above this amount you pay Bitpanda's standard fee of 0.0125% per week of the total amount you hold, which is a lot cheaper than the usual amount for storing precious metals in a secure and insured vault. It will be calculated daily and reduced from your respective Metals wallet on a weekly basis (if the wallet balance is 0, no premiums are deducted).

The premiums for buying and selling differ but for gold for instance, the premium is 0.5% of the amount you buy and for selling gold, the premium is 1% of the amount you sell.

Bitpanda Mobile App

Bitpanda also offers a mobile application that let's you manage your crypto portfolio on the go. The app extremely well designed.

You can deposit your fiat currency, buy and swap cryptocurrencies as well as sending cryptocurrencies to friends (or yourself).

Moreover, the app has a convenient tab that let's you track market prices of all the cryptocurrencies as well as the metals that Bitpanda is offering, so you never lose sight of the market.

Bitpanda Best Token

Representative of the crypto company that it is, Bitpanda offers its own token. The Bitpanda Ecosystem Token (BEST). Think of it as a loyalty token on steroids. You can buy it and enjoy different perks in return.

Hold BEST Your BEST holdings increase by up to 12% each year! All you have to do is have BEST in your Bitpanda wallet and do at least one monthly trade. The higher your BEST VIP level and the more you trade, the more you can claim every month.

Trading discounts Everyone who uses BEST to pay trading premiums on Bitpanda and Bitpanda Pro gets a discount of 25%. This is a constant rebate and stacks with other rebates or promotions the company runs on Bitpanda and Bitpanda Pro.

BEST VIP votes When you have at least 5,000 BEST (VIP level 1) in your Bitpanda wallet, you get access to exclusive BEST VIP votes. You can have a say in strategic decisions like which digital assets Bitpanda adds next and more.

Lower deposit fees You also get to enjoy lower deposit fees when depositing via SOFORT or credit cards on Bitpanda. As a BEST VIP (level 2 and 3), you benefit from 20% lower deposit fees when using credit cards and 25% lower deposit fees for SOFORT.

Another cool feature of the BEST token is that a part of the BEST tokens that Bitpanda receives from users paying for trading fees, is burnt. That means that the supply of BEST tokens is only decreasing, never increasing!

How to Sign-Up for Bitpanda

Bitpanda’s sign-up is smooth and fast. After submitting your name and email address you will be asked which of Bitpanda’s two platforms you want to use.

We choose Bitpanda’s Global Exchange as it’s cheaper and not much harder to use once you get the hang of it.

This will lead you to the Bitpanda trading interface. Before you can make any trades however, you need to verify yourself. Verifying yourself will allow you to deposit fiat money (Euros, Dollars etc.) which you need in order to buy bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies traded on the Bitpanda Exchange.

The account verification process includes submitting your birthday, address and phone number. Once submitted, you have to proceed by uploading a copy of your ID or passport and a selfie. Bitpanda then goes on to check the validity of the information which can take a minute or two. The overall sign-up is astonishingly fast and user-friendly!

Depositing fiat on Bitpanda

Now that you have verified your account, you’re almost ready to make your first trade. To deposit fiat money, click on the user avatar in the top right corner. On the drop-down menu, click on “Deposit” and then “Euro” in the list of assets.

This will open a window displaying Bitpanda’s bank account information. Head to your bank account’s online banking and initiate the bank transfer using the information. Don’t forget to include the reference number as this is needed for Bitpanda to match the payment to your account.

Which cryptocurrencies does Bitpanda support?

Bitpanda recently a couple of new DeFi tokens to its platform making the exchange much more attractive!

A few of the assets we want to single out:

• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Ether (ETH)
• Tether (USDT)
• USD Coin (USDC)
• Basic Attention Token (BAT)
• ZCash (ZEC)
• Polkadot (DOT)
• Chainlink (LINK)
• Maker (MKR)
• Compound (COMP)
• Synthetix (SNX)
• Yearn.Finance (YFI)
• Uniswap (UNI)

Buying crypto on Bitpanda

Once you have received an email by Bitpanda informing you of the funds’ arrival, it’s time to head back to the exchange. First, you have to choose which cryptocurrency you want to buy, which is done by selecting the right market (in our case BTC/EUR).

Navigate to the left panel to choose the type of order you want to make. The easiest is a so-called “market order”. You simply have to enter the amount of bitcoin you want to buy, confirm and Bitpanda will execute your order instantly at the current market price. Conversely, if you choose “limit order” you can decide how much you’re willing to pay for the amount of bitcoin you want. This can take more time as your buy order will only be “filled” by the exchange when there is a corresponding seller, willing to sell at that price.

Withdrawing crypto from Bitpanda to an external wallet

Withdrawing your crypto from Bitpanda exchange to a wallet is simple. Click on your profile avatar, select “Withdraw” on the dropdown menu and choose the asset you want to withdraw.

A window will open asking you to enter the amount you want to transfer and the address you want to withdraw to. You also have the option to withdraw to the Bitpanda Platform.

Conclusion

All in all Bitpanda is a really good exchange and wallet platform. It's a very professionally managed company and the product shows it! Everything just works and the customer support is responsive and helpful.

Features like the Metal trading and BEST token as well as the mobile app and the variety of deposit methods make it one of the best options for people who are new to crypto and just look for an easy option to get started.