Bitget has appointed Oliver Stauber—former chief legal officer at Bitpanda and ex-EU head at KuCoin—as CEO of Bitget EU, tasking him with leading the exchange’s expansion under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and establishing its European headquarters in Vienna.
The Austria-based entity, which applied for a MiCA license in 2025, expects regulatory approval in the second quarter of 2026. Until authorization is granted, Bitget EU will not provide services across the European Economic Area (EEA), Stauber told Cointelegraph.
To ensure compliance, Bitget EU will ring-fence EEA users from Bitget’s offshore platform through IP address detection and enhanced Know Your Customer (KYC) measures. These controls are designed to prevent unlicensed entities from onboarding EEA residents via geographic workarounds, marketing efforts or reverse solicitation.
“Oliver’s appointment builds our confidence in Bitget’s long-term presence in Europe,” said Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, in a statement shared with Cointelegraph. She added that Stauber brings the “regulatory fluency and operational discipline needed” to establish Bitget’s European base in Austria.
According to the release, Bitget EU will also implement strict token-listing standards, offering only assets that meet MiCA’s whitepaper, liquidity and disclosure requirements.
“We are currently conducting a rigorous audit of our inventory,” Stauber said. “Any products that fail to meet EU standards for market integrity or do not provide adequate consumer disclosures will not be made available to EEA users.”
Broker model, best execution and market-abuse controls
Stauber said Bitget EU will operate under a broker model rather than as an exchange, acting as the counterparty to all client trades while sourcing liquidity from a range of independent providers in line with best-execution requirements.
He added that while the Bitget EU platform will closely mirror the look and functionality of the existing Bitget website, it will operate under a separate legal structure. This framework is designed to reduce market risk for EU clients and comply with MiCA, European Securities and Markets Authority expectations on market integrity, and national conduct rules.
The company also plans to deploy market surveillance systems to identify and prevent market abuse, manipulation and other forms of disorderly trading.
Vienna hub anchors Bitget’s long-term EU strategy
Vienna was chosen as Bitget’s European headquarters due to its central location, multilingual workforce and stable regulatory environment. Stauber said these factors make the city well suited to serve as a governance and compliance hub for EEA operations.
Once regulatory approval is secured, existing EEA users on Bitget’s global platform will be invited to migrate to Bitget EU, which will provide fully EU-compliant services.
