Bitstamp at a glance
Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency exchange founded in August 2011 in Slovenia by Nejc Kodrič and Damijan Merlak. It is headquartered in Luxembourg City and is the longest-running crypto exchange still in operation. Since June 2, 2025 it has been owned by Robinhood Markets, which paid about $200 million in cash, and it now trades as Bitstamp by Robinhood under Global CEO Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux.
- Founded: August 2011, Slovenia
- Headquarters: Luxembourg City, with offices in the UK, Slovenia, Singapore and the US
- Owner: Robinhood Markets (NASDAQ: HOOD) since June 2025
- Licenses: more than 50 licenses and registrations, including MiCA (2025) and a New York BitLicense (2019)
- Latest volume: $22 billion of notional crypto trading in Q2 2026
How Bitstamp started
In 2011 nearly all bitcoin trading ran through Mt. Gox in Tokyo. For a European buyer that meant an international wire, days of waiting and fees on both ends. Kodrič and Merlak built Bitstamp to accept SEPA bank transfers, the cheap euro payment rail used across Europe, reportedly starting with about €1,000. Slovenia lacked the banking and legal services an exchange needed, so Bitstamp moved its registration to the UK in April 2013. That September it began asking customers for passports and proof of address, years before identity checks were standard in crypto.
Surviving 2014 and 2015
Pantera Capital invested about $10 million before Bitstamp became the leading dollar-bitcoin exchange in early 2014, according to Bloomberg. That February a DDoS attack forced Bitstamp to pause withdrawals for several days; Kodrič refused a 75 BTC ransom. Weeks later Mt. Gox collapsed and much of its volume moved to Bitstamp.
The harder test came in January 2015. After a phishing campaign against staff, attackers drained under 19,000 BTC, about $5 million at the time, from Bitstamp's hot wallet. The exchange suspended trading, rebuilt its wallet security and reopened about a week later, honoring customer balances held before the suspension. Many exchanges of that era did not survive a loss of that size.
Licenses: Luxembourg, New York and MiCA
Bitstamp's long-term bet was regulation. In April 2016 Luxembourg licensed it as a payment institution, making it the first crypto exchange regulated that way in the EU and giving it passporting rights across the bloc. In April 2019 New York's Department of Financial Services granted Bitstamp USA a BitLicense. Its Singapore unit is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a major payment institution.
In May 2025 Luxembourg's CSSF granted Bitstamp a license under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation. That one authorization lets it run a trading platform, execute orders and hold crypto for clients across the European Economic Area, and it carried extra weight once the MiCA transition period ended in July 2026.
Who owns Bitstamp: NXMH, Ripple and Robinhood
In October 2018 NXMH, a Brussels-based investment firm owned by Nexon parent NXC, bought 80% of Bitstamp in an all-cash deal. The price was not disclosed but was rumored near $400 million. Kodrič kept a minority stake and stayed CEO until October 2020, when former Starling Bank COO Julian Sawyer took over. Graftieaux, Bitstamp's chief compliance officer from 2014 to 2016, replaced Sawyer in May 2022. Ripple bought a minority stake in 2023.
The crypto winter hit hard. Bitstamp Ltd's UK accounts show revenue of ~$123 million (€109 million) and a ~$41.8 million (€37 million) profit in 2021, then ~$32.8 million (€29 million) and a ~$7.91 million (€7 million) loss in 2022, and just under $9.04 million (€8 million) with a ~$22.3 million (€19.7 million) loss in 2023. Part of that decline reflects business moving into other group companies, but the trend pushed Bitstamp to look for a strategic owner. Robinhood announced its deal in June 2024 and closed it on June 2, 2025.
What Bitstamp means to Robinhood
Robinhood described Bitstamp as its first institutional business and its fastest route to customers outside the US. The numbers support that. Bitstamp handled $40 billion of notional volume in Q3 2025, $48 billion in Q4 2025, $42 billion in Q1 2026 and $22 billion in Q2 2026, at least half of Robinhood's crypto volume in each quarter. In November 2025 Robinhood said Bitstamp was generating roughly $100 million or more in annualized revenue.
Bitstamp is also Robinhood's route into derivatives. It launched perpetual futures for eligible EU customers in April 2026, and at the HOOD Summit on September 29, 2026 Robinhood said US customers would get crypto perpetuals with up to 10x leverage on Bitcoin and Ether through Robinhood Derivatives and Bitstamp.
How Bitstamp makes money
Trading fees are the main source. Exchange fees start at 0.30% for makers and 0.40% for takers at the entry tier and fall with volume, while the mobile app builds a spread into its prices. Institutional clients trade large amounts at low rates, so revenue rises and falls with market activity. Bitstamp-as-a-Service, staking, crypto lending and now perpetual futures add smaller revenue lines.
Bitstamp competitors
Bitstamp competes with Coinbase and Kraken for regulated institutional and European flow, with Binance and OKX on global spot and derivatives volume, and with Gemini and Bitfinex among older exchanges. Its pitch against all of them is the same one it has used since 2011: a long record, licenses in every major market and a conservative token list.
What to watch
Three things will shape Bitstamp's next few years: whether the US perpetuals launch arrives on schedule, how much institutional business it adds under the MiCA passport, and whether its volume holds up if the crypto market stays soft after a weak first half of 2026.
