Bitpanda CEO to go to Austria's Erste Group, kicking off leader search at crypto broker

The CEO of Bitpanda, a Vienna-based broker specialized in crypto assets, is leaving next year to take a role at Austria's Erste Group , the companies said on Tuesday.Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad, the Bitpanda CEO, will join Erste as executive director of group asset management in the first quarter of 2027.Meanwhile, he remains CEO at Bitpanda and will be joined effective immediately by a new co-CEO, Christian Trummer, a Bitpanda co-founder and chief scientist.Bitpanda has started a search for Enzersdorfer-Konrad's successor, looking internally and externally.Erste said the group asset management director job is newly created and will report directly to the bank's CEO."I was not looking for a new job ... But sometimes life happens differently, and I got an opportunity, which I simply could not refuse," Enzersdorfer-Konrad told Reuters in a brief interview.He has been Bitpanda CEO since August 2025.Trummer told Reuters it made sense for the two to lead as co-CEOs."I've been helping to build this company from day one. I'm in the office every day. People know me. I'm very well connected with the management team," Trummer said.