Plum launches crypto offering for EU residents
Plum has added crypto investing to its range of investment options in France, Belgium, Spain, and Ireland. Residents there will be able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in their app with just a few taps, via services provided by Bitpanda.
The European smart money app has made five popular cryptocurrencies available through the app: Bitcoin (BTC); Ethereum (ETH); Cardano (ADA); Solana (SOL); Binance Coin (BNB).
The firm, which had recently launched stock investing, announced the integration of Bitpanda’s services in late September. Plum was founded in 2016 by Victor Trokoudes (ex-Wise) and facilitates access to saving, investing, and budgeting. It has over 1.3 million customers across the UK and EU. The firm is a company incorporated in Cyprus.
Encourage a longer-term investing approach instead of shorter-term trading
Plum is starting out with only five established coins in order to encourage a longer-term investing approach and reduce complexity. These crypto assets will be available in fractional shares so they can invest with just €1.
Unlimited crypto transactions will be available at a fixed rate of 2.5% per transaction, the firm added.
Victor Trokoudes, CEO and co-founder of Plum, commented: “Our customers in the EU are keen to explore crypto as an asset class, so we are delighted to be bringing them this new service in a quick and secure way. At Plum, our aim is to offer superior financial tools to help people grow their money over time in the most efficient way possible.
“Crypto looks set to play a key part in the investment journey of the future so it’s exciting to be able to give customers access to this asset class now as part of a diversified portfolio. We’ve chosen to offer five, more established coins at this stage as we want to make financial management simpler for people and encourage a longer-term investing approach instead of shorter-term trading”.
Plum’s crypto offering is powered by Bitpanda
Once again, the white label platform behind the crypto offering is Bitpanda. Its API solution is now fully integrated with the Plum app and Bitpanda’s crypto services can be accessed through Plum’s interface, with all transactions executed by Bitpanda.
Crypto investments are physically backed up and kept in cold storage by Bitpanda to help ensure their safety. Customers can access them whenever they want.
Eric Demuth, co-founder and CEO of Bitpanda, adds: “As the industry evolves it is becoming increasingly clear that the best way for fintechs to truly have an impact on people’s lives is by working together. Bitpanda’s crypto services made available by Plum is a great example of this, and is now unlocking opportunities for investors in Europe to take control of their financial futures.”
Access to the Bitpanda crypto services are enabled by Plum Fintech CY Limited through Bitpanda GmbH, Austria. Bitpanda’s crypto services will be accessible through Plum’s interface, with all transactions executed by Bitpanda.
Bitpanda has already integrated its API solution with a wide range of fintech companies and online platforms. The Bitpanda Group is registered with the Austrian Financial Market Authority (FMA), the French Autorité Des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the Czech Trade Authority as VASP, holds the PSD2 licence, the MiFID II licence and became Austria’s first Electronic Money Institution (EMI) in accordance with European law (EMD2), plus has a fully AML5 compliant KYC process.
Furthermore Bitpanda became the first foreign crypto provider to become fully licensed in Sweden, and also secured registration with the Italian Virtual Asset Services Provider (VASP) and the Bank of Spain.
Bitpanda’s trading platform empowers both first-time investors and seasoned experts to invest in the cryptocurrencies, crypto indices, stocks, commodities and precious metals.
