Bitpanda Considers Public Listing, Rules Out London as Destination: FT

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda is “looking much closer” into a public listing than previously, co-founder Eric Demuth said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Demuth ruled out London as a likely venue for a public market debut, despite the crypto exchange’s recent expansion of U.K. operations. The lack of liquidity in share trading is putting Vienna-based Bitpanda off seeking a listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE), he said.

“Currently, everybody’s moving away from the LSE,” Demut said. “Liquidity-wise, the LSE is not doing too well.”

He added that a listing in New York was more likely, based on the support by the U.S. government’s support for digital assets.

This month saw the New York Stock Exchange debut of crypto firm Bullish (BLSH), which operates the crypto exchange of the same name and is CoinDesk’s parent company. Other prominent companies such as stablecoin issuer Circle Interent (CRCL) and trading platform eToro (ETOR) have also debuted on the U.S. public markets this year.

“The market is much more friendly right now … so we’re currently looking much closer into [listing] than we did before,” Demuth said.

Bitpanda is also considering a Frankfurt listing given that the Austrian company makes most of its money in mainland Europe.

Bitpanda did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for further comment.