Bitpanda, the crypto exchange backed by Peter Thiel, is snubbing London as a potential IPO destination, preferring New York or Frankfurt instead. Bitpanda co-founder and CEO Eric Demuth cited the lack of liquidity in share trading as the reason for not wanting to IPO in London, despite the crypto exchange’s recent UK expansion.
The Austrian crypto outfit is currently considering a listing. Speaking to the Financial Times, Demuth said: “Currently, everybody’s moving away from the London Stock Exchange. Currently, liquidity-wise, the LSE is not doing too well. I hope that it gets better but over the next few years, I think the LSE is struggling a bit."
He said that Bitpanda would instead IPO in New York or Frankfurt, but that a final decision on timing or location had not been made. His comments come amid a dearth of London IPOs, with fundraising from London IPOs in the first six months of the year slumping to a 30-year low.
Bitpanda, which is backed by Thiel's Valar Ventures and London-based VC Hedosophia, is the latest tech company to snub a possible London listing.
In June this year, Wise, the money transfer app, said it planned to move its primary listing to the US, while Revolut has also rejected a London listing, with its CEO, Nik Storonsky, saying it was “not rational” to float in Britain, given the advantages of the US public markets.
Meanwhile, crypto firms Figure Technology Solutions and Gemini have recently filed to list in the US. In February this year, Bitpanda announced a major UK rollout.
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