Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) announced a partnership with crypto broker Bitpanda, allowing approximately 18 million customers in Central and Eastern Europe to purchase digital assets, with services rolling out in phases across its subsidiaries.

This is one of the first major initiatives announced by RBI's new CEO Michael Hoellerer. Previously, he served as the general manager of Raiffeisenlandesbank NÖ-Wien. In April 2023, he led the bank in signing a letter of intent with Bitpanda, planning to launch retail crypto trading in Vienna in early 2024, making RBI one of the first traditional banks in Europe to offer crypto investments to regular depositors. He stated that the partnership aims to add an "innovative and secure" component to the product line, enabling all customers to "easily accumulate wealth." This model has now been expanded from a regional bank in Austria to the entire RBI Group's Central and Eastern European network.

Headquartered in Vienna, RBI is one of the largest Western banking groups in Central and Eastern Europe, operating in markets including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Kosovo, and Ukraine, with total assets of approximately $200 billion. According to the plan, crypto services will be gradually launched by each country's subsidiary based on local regulatory requirements, allowing customers to buy and sell digital assets directly within their existing mobile banking apps without needing to open separate exchange accounts. Bitpanda will provide the underlying trading, custody, and liquidity, while the bank will handle customer access and compliance checks.

Founded in 2014 and also headquartered in Vienna, Bitpanda was established by Eric Demuth and Paul Klanschek among others. In 2021, it completed a $263 million Series C funding round led by Valar Ventures, founded by Peter Thiel, with a valuation of approximately $4.1 billion. The platform offers over 650 digital assets and supports trading in stocks, ETFs, and precious metals, having obtained a license under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) to operate across the EU with a single license.

Bitpanda is shifting its focus from a consumer trading application to becoming an "infrastructure provider" for banks. It has already provided white-label crypto trading services to several financial institutions, including Germany's digital bank N26 and UAE's RAKBANK, with the number of institutional partners in Europe increasing from 9 in 2024 to 16 in 2025. In March 2026, it will launch its B2B brand "Bitpanda Enterprise," offering API investment interfaces, institutional-grade custody, trading liquidity, stablecoin payment channels, and tokenized asset infrastructure. Financially, Bitpanda expects adjusted revenues of €371 million in 2025, a 16% year-on-year increase; adjusted EBITDA is projected at €13 million, a 75% year-on-year decline, attributed to investments in products, compliance, and international expansion. Registered users have increased from 5.9 million to 7.4 million, a growth of 25%.

In the capital markets, Bitpanda is considering an IPO, reportedly leaning towards listing on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, with a target valuation of €4 billion to €5 billion. Signing a contract with a large banking group like RBI brings in 18 million potential user entries, far exceeding Bitpanda's own 7.4 million registered users, which will significantly enhance its valuation basis for the IPO.

In terms of market mechanisms, this is an expansion of distribution channels driven by the partnership agreement. The buyers are retail banking customers in Central and Eastern Europe, who previously could only purchase crypto assets through offshore exchanges or local small platforms, but can now complete transactions within their familiar banking apps, with funds expected to flow back from offshore platforms to regulated banking channels. The primary beneficiary is Bitpanda, which gains a large user entry with low customer acquisition costs and earns a share of each transaction; RBI gains new fee income and retains young customers who would otherwise flow to crypto platforms. The pressure is on platforms like Binance and Revolut that compete directly for Central and Eastern European crypto customers, as well as local small and medium-sized banks that do not yet have crypto product lines.

Source: Public Information