Raiffeisen Bank International and Bitpanda have agreed a framework that could eventually put crypto inside the banking apps of up to 18 million people across Central and Eastern Europe. Nobody can use it yet, and neither company has said when anybody will.
What the two Austrian firms announced is infrastructure, not a product launch. Bitpanda Enterprise will supply the underlying technology; each of RBI’s network banks will then decide what to offer its own customers and when, according to local market conditions and regulation. No first markets have been named. No timeline has been given.
The companies announced the framework on September 23, 2026. Bitpanda described it as a framework that “can support RBI network banks across Central and Eastern Europe, spanning all markets and potentially reaching up to 18 million customers.”
What Was Actually Agreed
The distinction Bitpanda draws is between a single-bank integration and a group-wide framework. Until now, banks in the Raiffeisen group adopted Bitpanda’s technology one at a time. This agreement creates a common set of infrastructure that subsidiary banks across RBI’s regional network can draw on when they choose to.
Bitpanda was explicit that this is not a simultaneous regional launch. “This collaboration is not about launching the same product in the whole CEE region at once,” its announcement said. “It is about creating the infrastructure that can allow individual RBI network banks to bring digital assets to their customers when the time is right for their market.”
The 18 million figure is therefore a ceiling rather than a customer base being served. It describes the size of RBI’s network in the region, not the number of people who will be able to buy crypto or when.
Bitpanda Enterprise is the business-to-business arm of the Vienna-based broker, providing infrastructure that banks and fintechs integrate into their own apps. Under the model, the customer relationship stays with the bank; Bitpanda runs the machinery behind it.
The Austrian Template
The arrangement extends a model that has been running in Austria for more than two years.
In April 2023, Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien announced it would offer crypto and other asset classes through Bitpanda’s technology, becoming, both companies said at the time, the first major traditional bank in the European Union to do so. The integration went live in the bank’s Mein ELBA app in early 2024, letting customers buy and sell without opening an account on a separate crypto platform.
The person who signed that deal was Michael Höllerer, then general manager of RLB NÖ-Wien. He is now chief executive of RBI, the group now taking the model region-wide.
The expansion since has been incremental. Bitpanda said in June 2026 that customers of Raiffeisen banks in Tyrol would gain access from May, following Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. That rollout began with major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, with more assets and savings plans planned for later phases.
That pattern, one region at a time, starting with a narrow asset list, is the closest guide available to how the CEE framework might unfold.
Why the Caveats Matter
RBI operates through subsidiary banks across Central and Eastern Europe, each supervised by its own national regulator. The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, under which Bitpanda is authorized, harmonizes much of the rulebook, but not every RBI market is in the EU, and national supervisors still set expectations for how banks offer investment products.
That is the practical reason for the language about local requirements and the reason a group-level framework is not the same as a launch. The framework removes the technology question; it leaves each bank’s own regulatory, commercial, and timing decisions untouched.
Bitpanda said the arrangement “could make it one of the broadest group-wide crypto rollout by a traditional European banking group to date,” without providing data comparing it to other banking groups.
Banks as the Distribution Channel
The agreement fits a pattern across European banking, in which access to crypto arrives through institutions customers already use rather than through dedicated platforms.
Bitpanda framed that as the next phase of adoption. “Mass adoption does not require every investor to become crypto-native,” its announcement said. Its enterprise arm has added bank partners steadily, including Germany’s BW-Bank, alongside the Raiffeisen banks in Austria.
For now, what exists between RBI and Bitpanda is an agreement about plumbing. The customer-facing part is still a decision each bank has yet to announce.
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