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Bitpanda, a crypto exchange backed by billionaire investors Peter Thiel and Alan Howard, has ruled out listing in London due to a lack of liquidity in share trading, making it the latest company to shun the UK’s capital markets.
The Austrian group, one of the biggest Europe-based digital asset exchanges, is keenly considering a listing but “it will not be in London”, Eric Demuth, co-founder of Bitpanda, told the Financial Times.
The UK is suffering from a prolonged drought in initial public offerings, with the amount raised from listings in the first half of this year plunging to a 30-year low. Anxiety is mounting about London’s status as a hub for global capital, with politicians and regulators seeking to revive the UK’s capital markets through a series of reforms in recent years.
“Currently, everybody’s moving away from the [London Stock Exchange],” Demuth said. He pointed to British fintech Wise, whose shareholders voted last month to switch its primary listing from London to New York in an effort to attract more investors and improve liquidity in its shares.
“Currently, liquidity-wise, the LSE is not doing too well,” Demuth said.
“I hope that it gets better but over the next few years, I think the LSE is struggling a bit,” he said, adding that Bitpanda would list in either Frankfurt or New York, but that no decision on location or timing has yet been made.
Demuth’s comments come as crypto companies rush to list in New York, encouraged by staunch US government support for the industry, which has helped push the price of bitcoin to record highs this year. President Donald Trump’s administration has championed digital assets, welcoming crypto executives to the White House, appointing friendly regulators and dismissing lawsuits. The president’s family businesses are heavily involved in crypto.
Earlier this month, blockchain-based lender Figure Technology Solutions filed to list its shares in New York, while the Winklevoss twins’ crypto exchange Gemini and crypto custodian BitGo have also recently filed to list in the US. Another Thiel-backed crypto exchange, US venue Bullish, floated on the New York Stock Exchange this month.
“The market is much more friendly right now . . . so we’re currently looking much closer into [listing] than we did before,” Demuth said.
Bitpanda was founded in 2014 and is backed by investors including Thiel’s Valar Ventures, Ian Osborne’s Hedosophia and hedge fund manager Alan Howard. It was valued at $4.1bn in 2021.
The company reported revenues of €393mn in 2024 and launched in the UK earlier this month, allowing users to trade more than 600 tokens. It also became a sponsor of Arsenal football club, joining the rush of crypto companies signing deals with sports teams as they seek to capitalise on renewed interest in the industry.
Demuth said another reason Bitpanda would not list in the UK was that it had newly launched there and made most of its money from continental Europe.
