After securing €30 million in funding, One Trading has announced a rebranding as the platform — previously known as Bitpanda Pro — separates from Bitpanda. The funding, led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures with participation from MiddleGame Ventures, Speedinvest, Keyrock and Wintermute Ventures, will see the digital asset exchange emerge as the fastest and most scalable exchange in the market, offering retail and institutional-grade services.
The move will see the platform fill a gap in the current market. Offering the levels of protection seen in traditional finance to digital assets. Combined with its user-friendly interface, it promises to transform the market making it easy and secure for newcomers to digital trading, while also using its regulatory backing to offer more sophisticated products.
Transforming Bitpanda Pro
Launched in 2019 to provide experienced traders and financial professionals with a regulated exchange for digital assets, its transformation to One Trading was always expected, Bitpanda’s CEO, Eric Demuth said, “given its potential, we also knew and planned that its success would naturally make it evolve to become its own business.” The plan now is that One Trading will build on Bitpanda Pro’s success.
Led by Josh Barraclough, a former JP Morgan executive, One Trading aims to address the lack of regulated crypto exchanges. As part of this, it will undertake the anti-money laundering and Know Your Customer checks that are standard in finance, and will be familiar to anyone who has ever opened a bank account.
However, they also aim to become a MiFID Trading Venue. MiFID, or the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, is the EU regulatory framework that covers financial derivatives. The framework ensures that products are designed with the necessary checks, transparency, and customer protection, and that One Trading will be able to offer its customers a wide range of derivative products, further narrowing the gap between traditional securities trading and digital assets.
Alongside the regulatory changes, One Trading has been investing in its infrastructure. Barraclough says that their new platform will “be the fastest and most scaleable exchange based on real-work metrics.” They will also be introducing a different type of model. Rather than the more traditional pay-per-trade operated by most exchanges, One Trading will offer a membership model. “Above all,” Barraclough says, “we want a regulated, institutional-grade platform where people feel safe to trade with unique product options.”
An evolution of crypto markets
While many appreciate the benefits that crypto can provide through the anonymity of transactions and lack of centralised authorities, for many, these can be off-putting. Both casual investors and major institutions may avoid crypto because of the perceived risks. One Trading believes it can address that problem, offering a secure and accessible platform which can manage sophisticated products while providing customer protection.
“The crypto markets have struggled to create a regulated solution that both institutions and retail customers can believe in long-term,” said James Fitzgerald, a founding partner at Valar Ventures. He believes that the combination of Barraclough’s experience and One Trading’s focus on meeting regulatory standards will change that: “One Trading will regain traders’ trust and build confidence in a product that delivers both on regulation, and improved technology.”
