Where it came from
Bitstamp started in 2011, which by the standards of this list is a long time ago, and it is still running under the same brand. The operating company, Bitstamp Limited, is registered in England and Wales with company number 08157033 and was incorporated on 25 July 2012; the group also has offices in Luxembourg, Slovenia, Singapore and the United States. Bitstamp describes itself as the world's longest running cryptocurrency exchange.
What it does
A custodial spot exchange serving both retail and institutional customers. Bitstamp said in June 2025 that it held over 50 active licences and registrations globally, with customers in the EU, the UK, the US and Asia. Derivatives are offered through a separate Slovenian entity, Bitstamp Financial Services Ltd., authorised by the Slovenian Securities Market Agency as a MiFID investment firm.
The 2015 breach
On 4 January 2015 one of Bitstamp's operational wallets was compromised. The company suspended the service the following morning and told customers that fewer than 19,000 coins had been lost, that this was a small fraction of its reserves, and that the majority of customer funds were held offline in cold storage. Balances held before the suspension were honoured in full and the exchange reopened on 9 January. The tradeoff that made the recovery possible is the same one every custodial exchange faces: keeping most of the coins offline costs speed, and it is what stops a hot wallet breach from being the end of the business.
The acquisition
Robinhood Markets closed its acquisition of Bitstamp Ltd. on 2 June 2025. The brand continues, now presented as Bitstamp by Robinhood, and the acquisition gave Robinhood its first institutional crypto business. Bitstamp's status here is Acquired rather than Active because the company is no longer independent, not because the exchange stopped.
Listing here is not endorsement.