While London’s capital markets continue their relentless slide into what can only be described as a liquidity desert—with IPO fundraising collapsing from £8.8 billion in 2021 to a mere £160-180 million range in 2025—Austrian cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda has quietly abandoned its plans for a London Stock Exchange debut and pivoted toward the more hospitable waters of Frankfurt and New York.
The decision represents more than mere opportunism; it reflects a calculated response to the LSE’s three-decade liquidity nadir, where trading volumes have withered to levels that would make even the most patient institutional investor wince.
Bitpanda requires robust buyer-seller dynamics to support its valuation ambitions—something London’s increasingly anemic markets simply cannot provide. Frankfurt emerges as the natural European alternative, given Bitpanda’s substantial mainland European revenue base and the regulatory familiarity that comes with operating within the EU framework.
The German exchange offers a more predictable environment for a company whose growth trajectory is largely anchored in continental European markets, where crypto adoption continues its steady march toward mainstream acceptance.
New York, however, presents the more compelling liquidity proposition. The U.S. capital markets demonstrate precisely what London lacks: institutional appetite, regulatory clarity around digital assets, and the kind of deep market participation that crypto companies increasingly demand.
Recent successful listings like Bullish on the NYSE have validated this strategic shift, proving that traditional exchanges can accommodate crypto-native businesses without the regulatory hand-wringing that has characterized London’s approach. The success of established crypto exchange IPOs becomes evident when examining Coinbase’s performance, which despite experiencing 9.06% volatility continues to attract institutional investment through its diversified revenue model.
Bitpanda’s robust financial metrics—including increased user acquisition and trading volumes—provide the fundamental support necessary for either venue choice. The company has strategically expanded its legal and compliance infrastructure to navigate the complex transatlantic regulatory landscape, positioning itself for dual listing possibilities that could maximize capital access.
This exodus follows an established pattern, with companies like Wise already demonstrating the benefits of abandoning London for deeper markets. As crypto firms increasingly seek institutional-grade platforms on regulated exchanges, London’s prolonged weakness may require years to remedy—assuming it ever does.
Bitpanda’s pivot simply acknowledges what market observers have long suspected: sometimes the smart money knows when to fold.
