Regulated crypto platforms in Europe are now beginning to compete on execution quality, not just on compliance. This shift marks a new phase in the development of trading infrastructure in the region.

Bitpanda’s Fusion platform is an example of this. It aggregates order books from 12 global trading platforms, providing traders access to combined liquidity.

Europe’s fragmented liquidity problem

For years, European traders had to choose. Regulated platforms offered custody and legal clarity but rarely came close in execution depth to global platforms that fall outside European regulations.

Additionally, many of the largest liquidity pools worldwide operate outside of European oversight. As a result, active traders turn to foreign exchanges, where deeper order books lead to smaller spreads and better prices.

The issue was not the number of platforms. It was about the type of infrastructure that these platforms built. Most focused on accessibility, onboarding, and compliance with regulations.

Moreover, crypto liquidity in Europe is still fragmented. Market depth varies by asset, exchange, and time, meaning no exchange consistently leads across all trading pairs.

For active traders, this fragmentation creates practical challenges. Capital is often spread across multiple platforms, and funds are regularly moved to access available liquidity. This leads to inefficiencies and additional costs, for example, due to losses from repeatedly exchanging fiat to crypto.

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How Bitpanda Fusion fits into this

That is starting to change now. Regulated European platforms are now building products focused on execution. Bitpanda Fusion connects 12 global trading platforms.

For each trading pair, liquidity is dynamically sourced from multiple exchanges – usually between two and nine at a time, depending on market conditions.

This model allows traders to take advantage of multiple liquidity pools simultaneously, including globally deep venues outside of Europe. This improves execution efficiency without the need to manually move funds between platforms.

“Fusion is designed for traders who are already working at a higher complexity level, seeking legal certainty and wanting to keep their funds safe: high-frequency or high-volume traders, users familiar with order books and advanced order types, traders optimizing for execution, not simplicity,” noted Bitpanda.

The platform supports more than 2,000 trading pairs. You can place limit, stop-limit, and take-profit orders, along with integrated TradingView charts.

Fusion demonstrates a broader development in the European market, moving away from fragmented trading platforms and opting for more integrated environments where liquidity is pooled.

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