Bitvavo review 2026
The largest crypto exchange in the Netherlands.
Our verdict
For Dutch customers Bitvavo is the simplest way into the market: euros in through iDEAL or SEPA at no cost, more than four hundred coins in euro pairs, Dutch-language support and a MiCAR licence from the AFM. That convenience has a price: 0.25% taker on euro pairs is high for the sector, and Bitvavo does not publish its spread. Since June 2026 there is margin up to 5x; there are no perpetuals and no tokenised equities. What you should know: Bitvavo itself states that staking and lending fall outside the MiCAR licence, and the 2022 Genesis episode was settled without customers losing money, though it still counts in our security pillar because customer assets were at risk. Operating since 2018.
Strengths
- Euro deposits and withdrawals are free, including iDEAL
- MiCAR licence from the AFM, live in 24 EEA countries
- More than four hundred assets, almost all in euro pairs
- Proof of Reserves with a merkle tree in which you can find your own balance
- Margin up to 5x on more than twenty assets since June 2026
Weaknesses
- 0.25% taker on euro pairs is high for the sector
- The spread is not published
- The Convert fee appears nowhere on the site; you only see it in the order preview
- Staking and lending fall outside the MiCAR licence
- No perpetuals, no equities, no yield on collateral while trading
Availability and licences
- Entity serving Dutch customers: Bitvavo B.V., based in Amsterdam, Chamber of Commerce 68743424. Custody runs through Bitvavo Custody B.V.
- MiCAR licence: granted by the AFM, announced 27 June 2025. It covers custody and administration, operating a trading platform and transfer services (Article 3(1)(16) a, b and j). No licence number appears on bitvavo.com; we did not find one, checked 14 October 2026.
- Available in 24 EEA countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
- MiFID II: Bitvavo publishes no MiFID II licence. Since June 2026 there is margin trading up to 5x. Whether that is offered as spot margin or as a derivative is stated nowhere on its own site; we did not find it, checked 14 October 2026.
- Staking and lending fall outside MiCAR. Bitvavo states this itself; lending runs through Bitvavo Custody B.V., which is not licensed under MiCA.
- United Kingdom: not available through this entity.
Reviewed on 14 October 2026 · Sources: Bitvavo imprint ↗ · Bitvavo on the MiCA licence ↗ · supported countries ↗
Products
| Product | Status | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Spot crypto | Live | More than 400 assets, nearly all in euro pairs |
| Margin trading | Live since June 2026 | Up to 5x on more than 20 assets, long and short, margin in euros |
| Staking | Live | Flex without lock-up and Fixed with a 30-day lock-up, 65+ assets |
| Lending | Live | Through Bitvavo Custody B.V., dynamic rates, not regulated under MiCA |
| Recurring buys | Live | Scheduled purchases from a euro balance |
| Crypto perpetuals | No | Not available |
| Tokenised equities (xStocks) | No | No trace on bitvavo.com or support.bitvavo.com, checked 14 October 2026 |
| Real equities | No | Not available |
| Options | No | Not available |
Costs
Lowest regular rate, without VIP status, token or temporary promotion. On euro pairs you pay 0.15% as a maker and 0.25% as a taker. USDC markets have their own, lower schedule of 0.05% for both maker and taker, but carry a substantial spread on top; in our comparison we add 0.055%. Stablecoin pairs have yet another schedule and do not count towards your volume tier.
Volume and VIP, counted separately. The maker fee falls from 0.15% to 0% from EUR 10 million of 30-day volume; the taker fee from 0.25% to 0.02% from EUR 100 million. That ladder applies to crypto trading only; stablecoin pairs do not count. The full ladder is in our fee table.
Funding, withdrawing and converting. SEPA, iDEAL and Bancontact are free. Credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal cost 1%, EPS 1.75%. A SEPA deposit arrives in about one business day from a Dutch bank and two from a foreign account; there is no SEPA Instant. Crypto withdrawals cost a fixed amount per coin, for example 0.000018 BTC or 1.1 USDC. Recovering a transfer sent on the wrong network costs EUR 50 in administrative fees.
What Bitvavo does not publish. The Convert fee appears nowhere on the site; you only see it in the order preview. On top of it comes a market maker spread for the five-second price guarantee, and your counterparty there is Inveniam B.V., an entity of Bitvavo Holding. The order book spread is not published either. We therefore do not state a total cost per order: that number would suggest a precision that is not there.
Reviewed on 14 October 2026 · Source: bitvavo.com/fees ↗
Safety and history
- Proof of Reserves: yes, performed by The Network Firm LLP, with a merkle tree in which you can find your own balance. Coverage is 13 assets; reserve ratio 100%, with DOGE at 104% and EUR at 113%.
- A caveat on that Proof of Reserves: Bitvavo is not consistent with itself. Its own page gives the frequency as both annual and quarterly, and the reference date as both 31 March 2026 and 31 December 2024. Checked 14 October 2026.
- Audited accounts: yes. The 2023 accounts of Bitvavo Group B.V. received an unmodified audit opinion from Grant Thornton, dated 21 November 2024.
- Supervision: AFM, under MiCAR. No public fine, penalty order or warning from the AFM or DNB found, checked 14 October 2026. Not found is not the same as never happened.
- Customer funds lost: no. When Genesis collapsed in 2022, customer crypto was outstanding there; Bitvavo took the risk onto its own balance sheet and repaid all Genesis-related customer loans in full during 2024. In our security pillar such an event still counts, regardless of compensation.
- Exchange hack: no case found, checked 14 October 2026.
Genesis, from start to finish. Genesis suspended redemptions in December 2022 and filed for Chapter 11 on 19 January 2023. The New York court approved distributions on 17 May 2024; in the second half of 2024 Bitvavo received more than 90% of the expected amount. The frequently quoted figure of EUR 280 million comes from press coverage in December 2022 and appears in no document from Bitvavo or a regulator. What the audited accounts do show: Bitvavo pre-funded the outstanding amounts with a EUR 50 million shareholder loan and an external credit facility, and no losses on customer funds were reported.
Full dossier with sources: governance, data and reputation
- Operating since 2018: market leader in Dutch retail trading. Bitvavo B.V. appears in the DNB openbaar register ↗ as a crypto service provider, and has held a payment institution licence there since 30 June 2026. The MiCAR licence came from the AFM and was announced on 27 June 2025.
- No enforcement known: there is no public fine, warning or measure from DNB or the AFM against Bitvavo.
- Genesis loss (2022–23): hundreds of millions in client crypto were outstanding at the collapsed Genesis. Bitvavo guaranteed the balances from its own funds and repaid clients in full — but in our security pillar a loss of client funds counts, regardless of compensation.
- The co-founder left (July 2025): CEO Mark Nuvelstijn stepped down from his duties after publications by Het Financieele Dagblad (the Dutch financial newspaper) about his private investments. According to that newspaper, he transferred millions to the later convicted investment fraudster Max R. and declared those transfers to his bank as a loan, so the money laundering checks were not triggered. He has not been prosecuted or convicted for this. Bitvavo had an external investigation carried out; the outcome has not been made public.
- Management could access customer data: Bitvavo confirmed in 2025 that managers were able to view personal customer data until the spring of 2024. According to the company this was necessary in the early years because they helped with registration and customer questions, and the permissions have been restricted since then. Professor of privacy law Gerrit-Jan Zwenne called that broad access “at odds with the privacy law” and “a risky and therefore problematic choice”. A supervisory authority has not given an opinion on it.
- Data breach (May 2024): a limited group of users was notified that their name, email address, home address, IBAN, recent trading volume and the last three digits of their phone number had been exposed. Bitvavo reported it to the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (the Dutch privacy regulator) and said balances were not at risk and that there was no indication passwords had leaked. The number of customers affected and the cause have never been disclosed. Bitvavo published no statement of its own; the reporting comes from Tweakers ↗ and Opgelicht?! ↗ (both 1 May 2024).
- Scams using the Bitvavo name: the Fraudehelpdesk (Dutch fraud reporting centre) received more than 1,800 reports in 2025 about criminals posing as Bitvavo, compared with 716 the year before. Those are reports to a reporting centre, not established cases, and it concerns fraud by third parties — not a leak at the exchange. It is, however, a reason never to respond to phone calls made in the name of Bitvavo.
- X account hacked (October 2024): the official account briefly promoted a non-existent “BVAVO token”. Bitvavo confirmed the hack and got the account back; nothing is known about any damage.
- Reclame Code Commissie (Dutch advertising self-regulator, 2022): the claim of “one million Dutch users” in a TV commercial did not hold up. That is a recommendation from a self-regulatory body, not a fine.
Since July 2025 Bitvavo has had no permanent CEO. A successor has been identified, but the AFM still has to assess that appointment. What is set out above concerns governance, data and reputation — not the balances themselves: customers have not lost money at Bitvavo, not even with Genesis.
Reviewed on 10 August 2026 · Sources: Bitvavo news updates ↗ · NOS on access to customer data ↗ · Security.NL on the data breach ↗ · Fraudehelpdesk ↗ · Reclame Code Commissie ↗
Yield and capital efficiency
First, the caveat: Bitvavo itself states that staking and lending fall outside the MiCAR licence. Staking runs through Bitvavo B.V. and lending through Bitvavo Custody B.V., which is not licensed under MiCA. Certain safeguards under the regulation therefore do not apply.
Base yield. Flex Staking and Auto Earn have no lock-up: your assets stay tradable and withdrawable and rewards are paid weekly. Fixed Staking has a thirty-day lock-up, a higher rate and a single payout at the end; cancel early and you forfeit the reward for that term. As of 5 October 2026 Flex runs from 0.40% on ADA to 15.50% on API3, and Fixed from 1.80% on DOT to 23.50% on LPT. For calibration: ETH is 2.00% fixed against 0.60% flex, SOL 3.40% against 1.10%.
Lending. Rates are dynamic and are not published per asset; you only see them in your own account. Lent assets go to professional parties that provide liquidity and, according to Bitvavo, may also be lent to other users for margin trading. Lent assets remain sellable and withdrawable.
No yield on collateral while trading. Margin is held in euros and Bitvavo nowhere states that yield-bearing assets qualify as collateral. Anyone looking for yield on collateral while trading needs a platform with perpetuals.
Reviewed on 14 October 2026 · Sources: Bitvavo Earn ↗ · Lending at Bitvavo ↗
Score and sources
This score did not change on 14 October 2026. Restructuring this review changes no pillar. Fees from bitvavo.com/fees ↗ (14 October 2026); licence from the imprint ↗; reserves from Proof of Reserves ↗; the Genesis settlement from the audited 2023 accounts of Bitvavo Group B.V.
Frequently asked questions
Can I buy xStocks or shares on Bitvavo?
No. Bitvavo offers no xStocks and no other tokenised equities, and no real shares either. We checked bitvavo.com, support.bitvavo.com, the markets page, the fee page and the news section on 14 October 2026 and found no trace of them. Backed Finance xStocks are available on other platforms; our feature comparison shows which.
Does Bitvavo offer perpetuals or leveraged products?
Not perpetuals. Since June 2026 there is margin trading: up to 5x leverage on more than twenty assets, long and short, with margin held in euros. Bitvavo charges 0.0023% per hour on the borrowed amount and 2% on liquidation. Bitvavo publishes no MiFID II licence and does not state whether this is spot margin or a derivative; we did not find it, checked 14 October 2026.
Are staking and lending covered by Bitvavo's MiCAR licence?
No. Bitvavo states this itself: staking and lending are not regulated under MiCA. Staking runs through Bitvavo B.V. and lending through Bitvavo Custody B.V., and that second entity is not licensed under MiCA. Certain safeguards therefore do not apply (bitvavo.com/en/earn, checked 14 October 2026).
What does buying EUR 5,000 of bitcoin cost on Bitvavo?
On the entry tier you pay 0.25% as a taker on EUR 5,000, so EUR 12.50 in commission. You fund for free via iDEAL or SEPA and trade directly in euros, so no conversion is needed. On top of that comes the spread, which Bitvavo does not publish and which we therefore do not include.