The LSE Directory / Crypto exchanges
Bitstamp is a cryptocurrency exchange offering trading between fiat currencies (the US dollar, euro and pound sterling) and digital assets, with over 85 tradable assets available on its web and mobile platforms. It serves both retail customers, who buy, sell and hold crypto through the exchange, and institutional clients, for whom it provides execution, deep liquidity and API access alongside institutional lending and staking services. The company is headquartered in Luxembourg City, with additional offices in the UK, Slovenia, Singapore and the US. Within the crypto exchange category, Bitstamp differentiates itself on longevity and regulatory breadth rather than on the widest asset list: it markets itself as the world's longest running cryptocurrency exchange and holds more than 50 licenses and registrations across jurisdictions, including a Luxembourg payment institution license (granted 2016) that covers all EU member states, plus approval from New York State's Department of Financial Services. That license count underpins its institutional side, where it competes for order flow and custody relationships that require regulatory assurance rather than the largest coin selection. The company was founded in August 2011 in Slovenia by Nejc Kodric and Damijan Merlak as a European focused alternative to the then dominant Mt. Gox exchange; it relocated its registration to the UK in 2013 and to Luxembourg in 2016. Ownership has changed hands several times: a Belgian investment company acquired it in an all cash deal in October 2018, Ripple purchased an undisclosed minority stake in May 2023, and Robinhood Markets announced its acquisition of Bitstamp in June 2024 and completed the roughly 200 million dollar deal on June 2, 2025, giving Robinhood its first institutional crypto business. The exchange has also disclosed past security incidents, including a February 2014 DDoS extortion attempt and a January 2015 hack in which fewer than 19,000 bitcoins were stolen. Since the Robinhood acquisition closed, Bitstamp has operated as Robinhood's institutional crypto arm serving customers across the EU, UK, US and Asia, positioned by Robinhood as the vehicle for its international and institutional expansion alongside its existing US retail crypto business. Bitstamp's chief executive at the time of the deal was JB Graftieaux, and Robinhood Crypto general manager Johann Kerbrat described the acquisition as bringing a long standing global exchange into Robinhood's ecosystem.
