Bitpanda Academy: guides to buying, costs and regulation of crypto in Europe

Bitpanda Academy is the learning section of this website. It is written for residents of the EU and EEA who are thinking about a first purchase of Bitcoin or another crypto-asset, and for people who already hold some and want to understand the fees they pay and the rules their provider works under. You do not need a Bitpanda account to read it, and the steps and checks in the guides work for any provider, not only for this one.

The guides stay with three subjects. Buying: the steps from choosing a provider to the first order, the ways to pay in euros and the decision about where your coins are kept afterwards. Costs: how a broker and an exchange each set a price, what a trade fee, a spread and a withdrawal fee are, and how to add them up before you confirm. Regulation: what the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) asks of a provider, what an authorisation does and does not protect, and how to look a company up in the public registers yourself.

Each guide opens with a short answer, so you can stop after the first paragraph if that is all you need. Below it come the key takeaways, the detail, a table or diagram, a short list of questions and the sources. Sources are the text of the regulation, the regulators' registers and Bitpanda's published price lists, each with the date it was read. Where a figure comes from Bitpanda, the guide says so and points to the page that holds it, such as the schedule of Bitpanda fees and limits or the list of Bitpanda licences and registers.

You will not find price forecasts here, or tips on which coin to buy. The Academy explains how things work and where to check them; whether to invest, and how much, stays your decision. Crypto-assets are highly volatile, and you could lose some or all of the money you put in. If you want a few lines instead of a full guide, there are short answers in the FAQ, and the Bitpanda home page shows what the company offers.