Austria’s First Published MiCA Sanction: Bitpanda Fined €70,000

Published on August 14, the decision is the first final MiCA penalty ruling made public by the FMA. The regulator said the ruling is final.

What Bitpanda Was Fined For

The €70,000 sanction relates to a crypto-asset whitepaper and the marketing published around it. The FMA’s findings concern the timing of that information and the details included in the promotion.

First, the regulator said Bitpanda did not submit the whitepaper at least 20 working days before its publication. It then said Bitpanda distributed marketing material before publishing that whitepaper.

The FMA also found that the marketing communication omitted:

• the required statement that the whitepaper had not been reviewed or approved by a competent authority and that the provider was solely responsible for it; and
• a telephone number and email address.

The issue was therefore not simply whether a whitepaper existed. It was whether investors received the document before the promotion, and whether that promotion clearly identified the provider’s responsibility and the lack of regula...