Bitstamp review 2026: MiCA licence, fees, custody and support

Bitstamp is a crypto exchange that serves clients in the EU from Luxembourg and, since 2025, belongs to Robinhood. For people in Bulgaria it is one of the providers that can operate under an EU licence passported into the country. This review sets out what Bitstamp, ESMA and Robinhood publish, checked on 16 September 2026. It does not give a score.

Company and ownership

The entity serving EU clients is Bitstamp Europe S.A., registration number B196856, at 40 avenue Monterey, L-2163 Luxembourg (source 1). The site footer says the serving entity depends on where the client lives and is shown in the profile section of each account.

Robinhood announced its agreement to acquire Bitstamp on 6 June 2024 (source 4) and completed the acquisition on 2 June 2025 (source 5). Robinhood lists Bitstamp offices in Luxembourg, the UK, Slovenia, Singapore and the US (source 5). The exchange now uses the name Bitstamp by Robinhood.

Licence and register entries

Luxembourg's financial regulator, the CSSF, authorises Bitstamp Europe S.A. as a payment institution (licence Z00000012) and as a crypto-asset service provider (licence N00000003) (source 1). Bitstamp announced its MiCA licence on its blog (source 3).

ESMA's interim MiCA register lists Bitstamp Europe S.A. under LEI 549300XIBGTJ0PLIEO72, authorised on 15 May 2025 for:

• custody and administration of crypto-assets;
• operating a trading platform;
• exchange of crypto-assets for funds and for other crypto-assets;
• execution of orders;
• reception and transmission of orders;
• transfer services.

The cross-border field lists 30 EEA countries, including Bulgaria (source 2).

How buying and selling works

Bitstamp offers two modes. Basic Trading is a simple buy and sell screen priced through spreads. The order book, which Bitstamp calls Pro, lets you place maker and taker orders with separate fees (source 1).

Depositing euro. You open a deposit order and Bitstamp shows its bank details with a personal reference number to put in the transfer (source 8). SEPA deposits are free. Instant SEPA is available if your bank supports it, for verified accounts in any EU country (source 7). An international wire deposit costs 0.05%, with a minimum of EUR 7.50 and a maximum of EUR 300. You can also buy through Instant Purchase with a debit or credit card, Google Pay or Apple Pay (source 1).

Withdrawing euro. Withdrawals go to your personal bank account (source 9). Bitstamp does not offer bank-account linking outside US ACH.

Minimums. The minimum order size is 10 units of the quote currency, such as EUR 10 or USDC 10 (source 1).

Fees as published

The fee schedule is valid from 1 September 2026 (source 1):

• Basic Trading spread: 0.5% fixed for stablecoins and 1.8% for other crypto-assets, plus a volatility spread of 0% to 0.5%.
• Order book, 30-day volume under USD 10,000: 0.30% maker and 0.40% taker for standard pairs; 0.060% maker and 0.080% taker for stablecoin and FX pairs, excluding USDT.
• Card purchase: 4%, with possible extra fees from your card issuer.
• SEPA deposit: free. SEPA withdrawal: EUR 3.
• International wire: 0.05% to deposit (min EUR 7.50, max EUR 300); 0.1% to withdraw (min EUR 25).
• Crypto deposits: free.

For a purchase of USDC worth EUR 1,000 in Basic Trading, the spread comes to EUR 5 to EUR 10. The schedule also lists an inactive-account fee, but only for clients of Bitstamp Limited, not Bitstamp Europe S.A. Fiat balances under EUR 25 are not returned when an account is closed.

Stablecoins after MiCA

Bitstamp disabled trading of USDT, DAI, PYUSD, VEUR, VCHF, DGLD and WBTC for EU and EEA clients in January 2025. Deposits and withdrawals of these tokens were suspended from 5 May 2025, and remaining balances were converted into USDC or BTC on 6 May 2025 (source 10). USDC remains available. The global fee schedule also lists EURC pairs; availability for EEA clients is not stated separately. Our guide on USDC and USDT explains the background.

Custody

Bitstamp is custodial: coins you buy stay in your Bitstamp account until you withdraw them, and custody is one of its licensed MiCA services (source 2). You can withdraw coins to a wallet you control if you prefer to hold the keys yourself; our guide to self-custody wallets explains the trade-offs.

Support

Bitstamp says its customer support team is available live 24/7. Phone lines are +352 20 88 10 96 for the EU and +44 20 3868 9628 globally, alongside a message form, [email protected] and [email protected] (source 6). The website is offered in English, Slovenian and Spanish, with no Bulgarian version.

Public issues

The main recent changes for EU clients were regulatory: the MiCA authorisation in 2025 and the delisting of non-compliant tokens described above. We did not find published enforcement actions against Bitstamp Europe S.A. in the regulator and company sources checked for this review.

Ratings

Trustpilot showed an average of 1.4 from about 1,000 reviews on 16 September 2026, on a profile claimed by the company (source 11).

Who Bitstamp suits

• People in Bulgaria and the EU who want a licensed exchange with published fees.
• Active traders who can use the order book's low stablecoin fees.
• Users who value 24/7 phone support in English.

It suits less well anyone who wants to hold their own keys by default, needs an account in their own name to receive payments, needs USD rails, or wants support in Bulgarian.

Alternatives

Altcoins.bg holds a MiCA licence from Bulgaria's Financial Supervision Commission and serves clients in Bulgarian; see our comparison with Altcoins.bg. xChange.bg gives EUR and USD accounts in your name, with USDC in a self-custody wallet; the side-by-side is in our comparison with Bitstamp.