Bitstamp: fact sheet

Who owns Bitstamp?

Since June 2025 Bitstamp has been part of Robinhood Markets, Inc.. Robinhood’s announcement of 2 June 2025 says: “Robinhood Markets, Inc. ("Robinhood") has closed its acquisition of Bitstamp Ltd. ("Bitstamp"), a global cryptocurrency exchange.”

The same release says “Bitstamp was founded in 2011 and has offices in Luxembourg, the UK, Slovenia, Singapore, and the US.” It adds that Bitstamp “holds over 50 active licenses and registrations globally”. That figure is the company’s own claim; we checked only the licences listed below.

Bitstamp now presents itself as “Bitstamp by Robinhood”. Ownership by Robinhood does not change the rules for your account. The Bitstamp company that serves your country, and the regulator that supervises it, still decide what protections apply.

This fact sheet does not rate or recommend Bitstamp. It records what we could check on 2 October 2026.

Is Bitstamp licensed or registered where you live?

Here is what we could confirm, and where the confirmation came from:

The EU and UK rows rest on Bitstamp’s own announcements. Our tools could not open the FCA register or the full list of MiCA firms kept by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). Look up the entity yourself before you deposit.

NYDFS said the 2019 licence lets Bitstamp USA offer customers “the ability to buy and sell bitcoin, along with select other virtual currencies, for USD and vice versa.”

How does Bitstamp charge fees?

We cannot tell you. When we tried to open Bitstamp’s fee schedule on 2 October 2026, the page returned no readable content to our tools. We do not guess at fees, so check the official fee page on bitstamp.net yourself.

When you do, look for each of these costs separately:

• the trading fee on each buy and sell, and whether it changes with your monthly volume;
• any extra charge for paying by card instead of bank transfer;
• the spread on quoted prices in the app, if any;
• fees to withdraw money to your bank and crypto to your own wallet.

Our guide to crypto trading fees explains each type, and the crypto fee calculator adds them up.

Once you have the official rate, the arithmetic is simple: fee = amount × rate. A $400 buy at a fee rate of r% costs $400 × r ÷ 100, before spread and withdrawal costs.

What does Bitstamp say about reserves and audits?

In a November 2022 post, Bitstamp said: “Each year since 2016 Bitstamp has been audited by a big four global accounting firm.” In the same post it said: “Our aim is to release a proof of reserves audit.” That was a plan, not a published report, and the post does not describe a tool that lets customers check their own balance.

We did not find a later Bitstamp proof-of-reserves report among the pages we could read. A financial statement audit and a proof-of-reserves report are different things. A proof-of-reserves report is a snapshot of assets at one moment, and usually says little about debts. Our explainer on what proof of reserves does and does not prove covers the difference.

What happened in Bitstamp’s 2015 security breach?

Bitstamp’s own FAQ of 13 January 2015 says: “Bitstamp experienced a security breach on Jan. 4th”. It suspended services from 5 January to investigate and rebuild its systems.

The FAQ says: “This breach represents a small fraction of Bitstamp's total bitcoin reserves”. It adds that most reserves were held in offline cold storage. It also promised that bitcoin held before the suspension “are completely safe and will be honored in full”. The FAQ does not say how many bitcoins were stolen, so we do not give a number.

This is the company’s account, not a regulator’s finding. The lesson is general. Hot wallets are online and can be attacked, which is why the SEC lists hacks among the main custody risks.

Has Bitstamp faced regulatory action?

We searched the press releases of the SEC, the CFTC, the NYDFS, the FCA, the US Department of Justice and the US Treasury on 2 October 2026. We found no enforcement action against Bitstamp itself.

“We found none” is not proof that none exists. Regulators in other countries publish their own notices, and searches can miss items. Check the warning lists of the regulator in your own country as well.

Where is Bitstamp available?

Robinhood says Bitstamp serves customers “across the EU, UK, US and Asia”. Bitstamp’s country and legal pages did not return readable content to our tools, so we cannot list the countries it does not serve. Check the official terms of service for your country, and confirm which Bitstamp company would hold your account.

What should you check before you sign up?

These checks come from regulator guidance, not from Bitstamp. They apply to any platform.

1. Find it on the register yourself. Type the regulator’s web address into your browser rather than following a link, then compare the exact legal entity name, reference number, website and phone number with what you were given. Scammers copy the details of real firms. Our guide to checking if a crypto firm is authorised lists the official registers by country.
2. Read what the register entry means. The UK FCA says: “Being registered with the FCA as a cryptoasset business does not mean your customers benefit from the protections of the Financial Ombudsman Service or the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).” FinCEN says a listing on its MSB site “is not a recommendation, certification of legitimacy, or endorsement of that business by any government agency.”
3. Know which entity you are signing up with. The terms of service name the company you contract with. That entity, and the country it is in, decide which rules apply to you.
4. Decide who holds the keys. The SEC warns: “If the third-party custodian is hacked, shuts down, or goes bankrupt, you may lose access to your crypto assets.” Read our lesson on wallets and private keys before you leave a balance on any platform.
5. Price the whole trade. Add the spread, the trading fee and the withdrawal fee before you buy. Our crypto fee calculator does the arithmetic.
6. Check the fee page and country list yourself. We could not verify either; do not rely on figures from comparison sites or social media.

What are the risks of using Bitstamp?

• Price risk. The UK FCA says people who buy crypto should be prepared to lose all their money.
• Custody risk. The 2015 breach shows that platform wallets can be attacked. If the third-party custodian is hacked, shuts down or goes bankrupt, the SEC says you may lose access.
• No compensation scheme. FCA cryptoasset registration does not bring Financial Ombudsman or FSCS protection, and the SEC says brokerage-account protections do not cover accounts with crypto firms.

See our full guide to crypto risks.