Key takeaways
- A broker is your counterparty: it quotes a price and sells from its own book. An exchange runs an order book in which you trade with other clients.
- EU law separates the two. MiCA lists the exchange of crypto-assets for funds (service c) and the operation of a trading platform (service b) as different services.
- The fee types differ: a broker charges a trade fee or spread, an exchange charges maker and taker fees that fall with volume.
- One provider, two price lists: 0.99% for Bitcoin on the Bitpanda broker, 0.25% falling to 0.02% on Bitpanda Fusion. Bitpanda is your counterparty on both.
- Custody is a separate service. In the ESMA register file of 7 October 2026, only 22 of 370 provider rows list a trading platform, and each row shows whether the provider may hold your coins.
The short answer
A broker trades with you; an exchange lets you trade with other people. That one difference explains the price you see, the fee you pay and the orders you can place.
| Question | Crypto broker | Crypto exchange |
|---|---|---|
| Who you trade with | The broker itself, as your counterparty | Other clients of the platform; the operator matches the orders |
| How the price is set | A quote from the broker that you accept or decline | By the order book: the highest bid and the lowest offer of other participants |
| Typical fee type | A trade fee as a percentage of the order, a spread, or both | Maker and taker fees, usually in levels by 30-day volume |
| Order types | Instant buy and sell, often savings plans | Market, limit and stop orders placed into the book |
| Who it suits | Small, occasional or first purchases | Frequent, large or automated trading |
Neither model is cheaper or more protective in every case, and some platforms mix features of both. The sections below take the three questions in order: what you pay, who you trade with and who holds your coins. This comparison is one of the Bitpanda Academy guides on buying, costs and regulation of crypto in Europe.
How a crypto broker works
A crypto broker buys from you and sells to you itself, at a price it quotes before you confirm. You do not need another customer to take the other side, because the firm is the other side. That makes the broker your counterparty, and it trades as principal, which means for its own account.
The EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) calls this business the exchange of crypto-assets for funds. Article 3(1)(19) defines it as the conclusion of:
"purchase or sale contracts concerning crypto-assets with clients for funds by using proprietary capital"
Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, Article 3(1)(19), read on EUR-Lex on 12 October 2026
Proprietary capital is the firm's own money and its own stock of coins. Mind the trap in the name: this "exchange" service is what a broker does, not what people call a crypto exchange. Swapping one coin for another on the same terms is a sister service, the exchange of crypto-assets for other crypto-assets (Article 3(1)(20)).
What is crypto brokerage in practice? Three things you will notice as a customer:
- A fixed quote. You see one price, valid for a short time, and accept or decline it.
- An instant fill. The whole order is filled at once, because the broker's own book is the source.
- Small minimums. On Bitpanda the minimum amount to buy or sell an asset is €1, so you can buy Bitcoin with a broker order for a few euros.
The law attaches duties to this model. A provider that exchanges crypto-assets must set a non-discriminatory commercial policy, publish a firm price or the method it uses to determine the price, and execute your order at the price displayed when the order becomes final (Article 77(1) to (3)).
A note on the word itself. In securities markets a broker is usually an agent that finds a counterparty for you. MiCA has separate services for that role: executing orders on behalf of clients (service e) and receiving and transmitting orders (service g). A firm that calls itself a crypto broker may do either or both, so check which services it holds.
How a crypto exchange works
A crypto exchange is a trading platform: a system with fixed rules in which many buyers and sellers meet and the operator matches their orders. MiCA calls it the operation of a trading platform for crypto-assets. Article 3(1)(18) defines that as managing multilateral systems that bring together "multiple third-party purchasing and selling interests" in a way that results in contracts. The operator runs the market. It is not the seller.
Order book, makers and takers
The order book is the list of all open buy orders (bids) and sell orders (asks), ranked by price. Your order either waits in the book or matches one that is already there, and the fee you pay depends on which of the two happens.
- Limit order
- An order to buy or sell at a specific price or better. It can wait in the book and may never fill.
- Market order
- An order to buy or sell immediately at the prices available. It fills, but the price is not fixed in advance.
- Maker
- The side whose order was resting in the book and added liquidity. Maker fees are usually the lower of the two.
- Taker
- The side whose order matched a resting order and removed liquidity. A market order is a taker order.
- Depth
- The quantity on offer at each price level. With thin depth, a large order moves the price.
- Slippage
- The gap between the price you expected and the average price you got after your order ran through several levels.
The first two definitions follow the plain-language ones that the US Securities and Exchange Commission publishes for securities on Investor.gov. The mechanics are the same on a crypto order book.
What the operator does
The operator writes and enforces the rules of the market and may not take part in it for its own account. Article 76 of MiCA requires a trading platform to publish bid and ask prices and the depth of trading interest continuously during trading hours, to publish the price, volume and time of executed trades as close to real time as possible, and to keep its fee structure transparent, fair and non-discriminatory. Paragraph 5 says operators "shall not deal on own account" on the platform they run. Few providers hold this permission: in the ESMA register file last modified on 7 October 2026, 22 of 370 provider rows list it.
Aggregators and "pro" platforms in between
Some platforms look like an exchange and work like a broker. They show an order book, accept limit orders and offer an API, yet the firm fills every order itself instead of matching you with another client.
Bitpanda Fusion is a first-hand example. Fusion shows an order-book view and aggregates prices from 12+ venues, and it does not keep an order book of its own. Its FAQ says: "Fusion is an advanced trading platform, not an exchange." The same page states that Bitpanda is your "sole contractual counterparty" for every trade, acts as principal, does not operate a multilateral trading system and fulfils all orders directly.
The public register agrees with the product page. The ESMA entry for Bitpanda GmbH lists services a, c, d, e, f, g and j, and not service b, the operation of a trading platform. The licences page sets out the services Bitpanda GmbH is authorised for.
For you this means exchange-style tools and volume-based fees, but a single counterparty. Your orders do not rest in a public book that other clients can trade against, and the price you receive depends on how the firm aggregates and prices, which it has to publish.
An order book on screen does not make a platform an exchange.
What you pay under each model
You pay for the same thing, getting an order filled, in different units. A broker builds the cost into a trade fee or a spread; an exchange charges maker and taker fees and leaves the spread to the market. Every provider authorised under MiCA must publish its policies on pricing, costs and fees in a prominent place on its website (Article 66(4)), so you can compare before you open an account.
Trade fee, spread, maker and taker
Crypto trading fees come in a handful of types, and each model uses a different mix of them.
| Cost type | What it is | Where you meet it |
|---|---|---|
| Trade fee | A percentage of the order amount, charged on each transaction | Brokers |
| Spread | The gap between the price at which you can buy and the price at which you can sell | Brokers (set by the firm) and exchanges (set by the order book) |
| Maker and taker fees | A percentage of each fill: the maker rate if your order waited in the book, the taker rate if it filled at once | Exchanges and order-book platforms |
| Slippage | Not a fee, but a cost: a large order uses up the depth and the price moves against you | Order books, mostly on larger orders |
| Deposit, withdrawal and network costs | Charged for moving money or coins in or out | Both models |
A first-hand comparison inside one company
Bitpanda publishes two price lists, one for its broker for EU and EEA residents and one for Fusion, so the two fee styles can be compared without borrowing another firm's numbers. The broker charges one percentage on every trade. Fusion charges a percentage that falls in seven levels as your 30-day trading volume rises.
| Price list | Applies to | Fee per trade |
|---|---|---|
| Broker: Bitcoin | All trades | 0.99% |
| Broker: stablecoins | All trades | 0.99% |
| Broker: other crypto | All trades | 1.49% |
| Fusion Level 1 | 30-day volume up to EUR 100,000 | 0.25% |
| Fusion Level 2 | EUR 100,000 to 500,000 | 0.21% |
| Fusion Level 3 | EUR 500,000 to 2.5 million | 0.17% |
| Fusion Level 4 | EUR 2.5 million to 10 million | 0.13% |
| Fusion Level 5 | EUR 10 million to 50 million | 0.08% |
| Fusion Level 6 | EUR 50 million to 250 million | 0.05% |
| Fusion Level 7 | EUR 250 million and above | 0.02% |
Sources: Bitpanda's cost overview for the broker and the Fusion page for the seven levels. A few coins on the broker carry a higher trade fee: XRT 2.49%, LUNC 1.99% and Spotlight coins 2.49%. Third-party fees, currency conversion costs and taxes can still apply.
Both lists belong to the same firm acting as your counterparty, so the difference is one of product design, not of legal model. It still shows the usual pattern: the simple quote costs more per trade, and the order-based platform favours volume. Every other charge is in the full Bitpanda fee schedule.
Worked examples
The two examples are illustrative. They apply the published percentage fees to two order sizes and count nothing else: no spread, no slippage, no deposit, withdrawal or network costs and no tax.
| Bitcoin order | Broker at 0.99% | Fusion Level 1 at 0.25% | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| EUR 100 | EUR 0.99 | EUR 0.25 | EUR 0.74 |
| EUR 5,000 | EUR 49.50 | EUR 12.50 | EUR 37.00 |
On €100 the two fees are 74 cents apart, a gap many people will accept for a purchase in a few taps. On €5,000 the gap is €37, enough to make it worth learning how a limit order works. Where the break-even lies is personal: it depends on how often you trade and what the simpler route is worth to you.
If the gap matters at your order size
The Fusion page lists the seven levels, the order types and the API: Bitpanda Fusion fees and order types. Bitpanda Fusion can lead to increased losses if market conditions change unexpectedly.
Who is your counterparty, and why it matters
Your counterparty is the party on the other side of your trade, and it decides where a conflict of interest can sit. With a broker you get certainty: the order fills at the quoted price. The trade-off is that the firm setting the price also earns from it. MiCA answers with disclosure and conduct rules. A firm that exchanges crypto-assets must publish a firm price or its pricing method and apply a non-discriminatory commercial policy (Article 77). A firm that executes orders for you must take all necessary steps to obtain "the best possible result" on price, costs, speed and likelihood of execution (Article 78). On an exchange the price is discovered among many participants, but nothing ensures that your limit order fills, and the operator is barred from trading on its own platform. Every provider must also identify, manage and disclose its conflicts of interest (Article 72).
Who holds your coins
The trading model does not decide who holds your coins. Custody is a separate service under MiCA, service a, and a broker or an exchange may provide it or leave it to another firm. It means safekeeping or controlling your crypto-assets or the private keys that give access to them (Article 3(1)(17)).
A provider that holds client coins must make arrangements to safeguard your ownership rights, especially if the firm becomes insolvent, and must not use your coins for its own account (Article 70). A custody provider must also keep a register of positions in each client's name, hold client assets apart from its own, send you a statement of your positions at least every three months and have procedures to return your coins (Article 75). These rules protect your ownership. They do not protect the value of what you own.
Both models can also let you withdraw to a wallet whose keys you control. Then no provider holds your coins, and no provider can restore a lost key. Before you choose, check three things: whether the provider's register entry lists service a, which legal entity the terms name as custodian, and what a withdrawal costs. The security page explains custody at Bitpanda.
How regulation treats each model
MiCA treats the two models as different services inside one authorisation regime. Article 3(1)(16) lists ten crypto-asset services, lettered a to j: custody is a, operating a trading platform is b, exchanging crypto-assets for funds is c and for other crypto-assets is d, and executing orders for clients is e. A provider is authorised service by service and may hold several. The regulation entered into force on 29 June 2023, and the transitional period for firms that worked under older national rules ended on 1 July 2026 at the latest (Article 143(3)). ESMA's interim MiCA register shows the result for every provider: the legal entity, its national authority, the authorisation date and the service letters. The row for Bitpanda GmbH names the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), gives 9 April 2025 as the date and lists services a, c, d, e, f, g and j. A companion guide shows how to read service codes in the MiCA register for any provider.
Which one suits you
The model that suits you depends on the size of your orders, how often you trade and how much of the work you want to do yourself. The table gives the usual fit for five situations, each with its drawback.
| Your situation | Route that usually fits | Its drawback |
|---|---|---|
| First purchase of a small amount | A broker order at a quoted price | The highest percentage fee of these routes, though small in euros on a small order |
| Regular savings plan | A broker savings plan that buys on a schedule | A fee on every execution, and no say over the price on the day |
| Frequent trading | An order-book platform or exchange with volume levels | You must understand order types, and a limit order may not fill |
| Large single order | Limit orders on a deep order book, or a platform that aggregates several venues | Slippage where depth is thin, and the order may fill in parts |
| Automated strategies | A platform with an API | A technical fault or a coding error executes as fast as a good order |
If you are at the first row, the guide on how to buy Bitcoin in Europe step by step covers account opening, payment and storage. The table describes typical cases and is not a recommendation for your circumstances.
Crypto-assets are highly volatile. You could sustain a loss of some or all of your investment, so it is important to invest only what you can afford to lose.
Common misunderstandings
Four mix-ups cause most of the confusion between brokers and exchanges.
- "Exchange" means any place to buy crypto. In everyday speech it does. EU law is narrower and uses other words: what people call an exchange is a trading platform (service b), which 22 of the 370 rows in the ESMA register file of 7 October 2026 list.
- A broker is always dearer. Not once everything is counted. The percentage fee is one part of the total. Spread, slippage and the costs of deposits, withdrawals and the network are the rest, and on a small order they can outweigh a lower trading fee.
- An order book on screen means an exchange. It does not. A platform can show depth and take limit orders while the firm remains the only counterparty, as on Fusion.
- A regulated platform cannot lose you money. Regulation does not remove market risk. Authorisation governs how a provider treats you, holds your assets and discloses its costs. The price of a crypto-asset can still fall sharply.
The company page tells you more about Bitpanda and how it earns money.
Frequently asked questions
Is a crypto broker the same as an exchange?
No. A crypto broker is the other side of your trade and sells from its own book at a price it quotes. A crypto exchange runs an order book in which clients trade with each other and the operator matches their orders. EU law treats these as separate services, the exchange of crypto-assets for funds (service c) and the operation of a trading platform (service b), and one company can hold both.
Is Bitpanda a broker or an exchange?
Bitpanda is a broker, not an exchange. The ESMA register entry for Bitpanda GmbH lists the exchange of crypto-assets for funds and for other crypto-assets (services c and d) and does not list the operation of a trading platform (service b). That also applies to Fusion, which shows an order book: its FAQ says "Fusion is an advanced trading platform, not an exchange", and Bitpanda fills every order as principal.
Are exchanges cheaper than brokers?
Often, but not always. Percentage fees on order-book platforms are usually lower and fall as your volume rises, which matters most for large or frequent orders. On a small order the difference can be a few cents, and spread, slippage and withdrawal costs can outweigh it. As an illustration, the published fee on €5,000 of Bitcoin at Bitpanda is €49.50 with the broker and €12.50 on Fusion at Level 1.
How does a crypto broker make money?
A crypto broker makes money from the trade fee it charges on each order, from the spread between the prices at which it buys and sells, or from both. Some brokers also charge for deposits, withdrawals or extra services. Under MiCA every authorised provider must publish its policies on pricing, costs and fees in a prominent place on its website, so you can check them before you trade.
Which is better for beginners?
A broker is usually the simpler start. You see one price, confirm it and the order fills, on Bitpanda from €1, and you pay a higher percentage fee for that simplicity. An exchange or order-book platform makes sense once your orders are large or frequent enough for lower fees to matter and you understand limit orders, depth and slippage. This is general information, not investment advice.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA), Articles 3, 66, 70, 72, 75 to 78 and 143. EUR-Lex: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1114/oj. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- ESMA, Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA), page with the interim MiCA register (last update 7 October 2026): https://www.esma.europa.eu/esmas-activities/digital-finance-and-innovation/markets-crypto-assets-regulation-mica. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- ESMA, interim MiCA register, file of crypto-asset service providers (CSV, last modified 7 October 2026, 370 rows): https://www.esma.europa.eu/sites/default/files/2024-12/CASPS.csv. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- European Commission, "Crypto-assets": overview of the MiCA framework and its timeline: https://finance.ec.europa.eu/digital-finance/crypto-assets_en. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- US Securities and Exchange Commission, Investor.gov, "Types of Orders": plain-language definitions of market and limit orders, written for securities: https://www.investor.gov/introduction-investing/investing-basics/how-stock-markets-work/types-orders. Accessed 12 October 2026.
- Bitpanda, Fusion page of the live website (fee levels, FAQ and counterparty statement), www.bitpanda.com/en/fusion. Read on 12 October 2026.
- Bitpanda, cost overview of the live website (trade fees per transaction), www.bitpanda.com/en/why-bitpanda. Read on 12 October 2026.
- Bitpanda, limits page of the live website (minimum amount to buy or sell), www.bitpanda.com/en/limits. Read on 12 October 2026.
For information only. Not investment advice.