Crypto▼ Bearish
Austria fines Bitpanda €70K in first MiCA enforcement case
Austria's FMA fined Bitpanda €70K for MiCA white paper and marketing breaches. The first published penalty under the EU crypto rules targets the Vienna-based broker's token launch process.
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Austria's Financial Market Authority fined Bitpanda GmbH 70,000 euros ($81,150) for breaches of the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. It is the regulator's first published penalty under the crypto rules.
The FMA said Bitpanda failed to submit a crypto white paper at least 20 working days before publishing it. The regulator did not identify which cryptocurrency was involved.
Bitpanda also circulated a marketing communication before publishing the required white paper. Another communication omitted a statement that regulators had not reviewed or approved the document, the FMA said. It also lacked a telephone number and an email address.
Bitpanda told CoinDesk in an emailed statement the findings "related exclusively to timing and formal specifications surrounding the publication of the whitepaper and an accompanying information document." The white paper was submitted early last year, the firm said.