Bitpanda, an EU based company for buying and selling bitcoin and cryptocurrency, announced today it has successfully applied and received an EU payment service provider license. The license was issued by the Austrian financial market authority (FMA) in accordance with European law (PSD2).

The license is a significant milestone for Bitpanda and will allow it to launch new features and products in the coming months. Bitpanda is one of a few European cryptocurrency companies to receive such a license. The Bitpanda team reports having around 1 million users and more than 100 team members.

“Our goal is to bridge the gap between the modern and traditional financial world. The payment service provider license will allow us to tear barriers down,’’ says Philipp Bohrn, one of the two managing directors of Bitpanda Payments GmbH. Prior to joining Bitpanda, Philipp Bohrn was the managing director of the Association of Financial Service Providers in Austria’s chamber of commerce for 9 years.

Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, former Head of Department Digitalisation and Innovation at Austria’s leading banking group Raiffeisen and second Bitpanda managing director, agrees, “We want to act as the missing link to make digital assets spendable anywhere our users want. With the license, we are a first mover in Europe to offer convenient and innovative features and services.”

The Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2) is a directive by the European Union (EU) to regulate payment service providers throughout the EU and the whole European Economic Area (EEA). The goal is that everyone from traditional banks to fintechs like Bitpanda is able to participate in an open European market while bringing new innovations and more efficient processes to their users.