Austria's Financial Market Authority (FMA) fined Bitpanda GmbH 70,000 euros ($81,150) for breaches of the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, marking the regulator's first penalty over the rules.
The FMA said Bitpanda failed to submit a cryptocurrency white paper at least 20 working days before publishing it. The regulator did not identify the cryptocurrency involved. Bitpanda also circulated a marketing communication before publishing the required white paper. Another communication omitted a statement that regulators had not reviewed or approved the document and that the provider was solely responsible for its contents, as well as a telephone number and email address.
Bitpanda told CoinDesk in an emailed statement that the regulator's findings "related exclusively to timing and formal specifications surrounding the publication of the whitepaper and an accompanying information document." The company said it "prepared a comprehensive whitepaper in accordance with MiCAR requirements, submitted it to the FMA, and continuously coordinated the entire process with the authority." The white paper was submitted early last year, the firm said.
