Bitpanda announces partnership with Raiffeisen Bank International

By Megha Bhattacharya

Investment platform, Bitpanda today announced a partnership with Raiffeisen Bank International  (RBI) in a bid to implement its blockchain-interoperability project Pantos on the RBI Coin. RBI Coin is a next-generation digital cash solution for inter-bank and inter-company payments to streamline cash and liquidity management and introduce new banking products to corporate and institutional customers.

Bitpanda’s Pantos is a European blockchain interoperability project developed in collaboration of the Technical University of Vienna.

Paul Klanschek, Co-Founder and CEO of Bitpanda said, “We see a lot of competing protocols, not only from the cryptocurrency space but also from tech-companies, banks and governments. The question of how to unite all those protocols still remains unanswered. The Pantos project aims to offer a unifying solution for the fragmented blockchain and cryptocurrency space. After a purely research and Proof-of-Concept-focussed mode we are now extremely excited to enter a partnership with RBI to bring our technology to their RBI Coin.”

The collaboration will enable the Bank to become a part of Pantos Ecosystem using technology that allows the establishment of interoperability between different blockchain ecosystems and use cases.

Christian Wolf, Head of Strategic Partnerships & Ecosystems, said, “The Pantos technology plays an integral role in making the tokenisation of assets a reality within our banking group by bringing in the interoperability aspect thus allowing for even more extensive and flexible use cases for banking customers.”

Recently, Bitpanda announced that it has closed a Series A funding round by securing around €44.5 million in a round led by Peter Thiel’s Valar Ventures. The new funding will be used to drive the company’s expansion and strengthen its position in the European financial industry.