Bitpanda: Christian Trummer Returns as Co-CEO as Enzersdorfer-Konrad Leaves for Erste Group
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Bitpanda is reshaping its leadership once again. The Vienna-based fintech unicorn announced that CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad will step down in the first quarter of 2027 and move to Erste Group. He stays in the job until then. Joining him at the top with immediate effect is co-founder Christian Trummer, who returns to an operating role as Co-CEO.
Enzersdorfer-Konrad has informed the board of directors of his planned departure. The board has started a structured succession process that considers both internal and external candidates.
“My decision to step down next year was not an easy one,” Enzersdorfer-Konrad says. “I am proud of what we have built together, and I will continue to lead Bitpanda with full commitment until I leave.” He joined Bitpanda in 2018, held roles including Chief Product Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy CEO, moved up to Co-CEO in August 2025 and has been running the company on his own since last November.
Enzersdorfer-Konrad Heads to Erste Group
His next step is already settled: Enzersdorfer-Konrad becomes Executive Director Asset Management at Erste Group. The newly created group-wide role reports directly to CEO Peter Bosek and brings together asset management and digital investing across the bank’s eight core markets. The appointment remains subject to the customary regulatory approvals.
The goal is a consistent digital investment approach for Erste Group’s roughly 23 million customers. In the role, Enzersdorfer-Konrad will work closely with Robert Kubin, who takes over as head of Erste Asset Management in early December.
“He stands for a pioneering spirit and brings extensive experience in making investing simpler and more accessible. That is crucial, especially for younger generations,” Bosek says. Young people, he adds, invest earlier and more naturally than any generation before them.
Enzersdorfer-Konrad points to the reach of his future employer. Erste Group, he says, has “the trust of 23 million customers and, in George, one of the most widely used banking platforms in Europe.” Together, they want to build “the leading investment offering in Central Europe.” For him it is also a return: before joining Bitpanda, he worked for Raiffeisen, zeb consulting and Erste Group.
Trummer Moves From Tech Back to the Top
Christian Trummer, most recently Chief Scientist, will focus as Co-CEO on product quality. That is familiar ground for him: Trummer served as Bitpanda’s Chief Technology Officer from the 2014 founding until June 2023, when Victor Tuson Palau (previously Ebury) came on board as Chief Product & Tech Officer. Since then, Trummer has worked on strategic initiatives, among them the AI unit Bitpanda.ai.
“Twelve years ago, we founded Bitpanda with a simple belief: investing should be easier and more accessible,” Trummer says. He wants to make the company “even more intuitive, more powerful and more valuable” together with Enzersdorfer-Konrad and the teams.
Eric Demuth, Executive Chairman and President of the board of directors, thanked the departing CEO: “Lukas has been instrumental in broadening Bitpanda and building a strong foundation for the future.” With Trummer as Co-CEO, he says, the company enters its next growth phase “from a position of strength.” The focus areas are the multi-asset offering spanning crypto, stocks, ETFs and precious metals, along with the infrastructure business for financial institutions.
All Three Founders Have Now Left the CEO Role
The reshuffle closes a circle that began among the founders about a year ago. Paul Klanschek gave up his Co-CEO role in August 2025 and moved to the board of directors of Bitpanda Group AG in the autumn, where he focuses on the company’s long-term strategic direction. At the time, Enzersdorfer-Konrad stepped up as Co-CEO alongside Eric Demuth, as Trending Topics reported.
Demuth followed last November, as Trending Topics reported at the time: he handed over his Co-CEO role and became Executive Chairman of the board, leaving Enzersdorfer-Konrad to run the company alone. That means all three founders who started Bitpanda in 2014 have now left the CEO position. Trummer is the first of them to return to an operating leadership role.
New Faces on the Executive Committee
The overhaul reaches beyond the corner office. Earlier this week, Bitpanda announced two additions to its Executive Committee: Shirin Krall becomes Chief Growth Officer, and Katrin Joschtel takes over as Senior Vice President Compliance, Risk & Anti-Financial Crime (AFC).
Krall started her career at McKinsey and was most recently Global Head of Retail Marketing at Revolut. At Bitpanda, she brings customer acquisition, performance marketing and brand and product marketing together in one unit. Joschtel leads a newly bundled second line of defense that combines compliance, risk, information security and AFC in one central function, reporting to Chief Legal Officer Fabian Reinisch. She previously spent more than ten years in leadership roles at Raiffeisenlandesbank Niederösterreich-Wien, most recently as head of compliance.
A New CFO and the Exit of a High-Profile Manager
Barbara Edelmann took over as Chief Financial Officer in early summer. She was promoted from within, having served as Vice President Finance & Tax at Bitpanda and managing director of Bitpanda Payments GmbH, following 16 years in senior positions at Deloitte. Her predecessor Jonas Larsen said his goodbyes publicly on LinkedIn recently (“It’s been a wild ride”). He spent around three years at the company and built up the finance, risk, compliance, AFC, CISO and internal audit functions. According to Bitpanda’s announcement, he is leaving for personal reasons and by mutual agreement.
There is also a prominent departure: Dominik Beier, most recently Chief Commercial Officer in charge of marketing, growth and international expansion, is joining flatexDEGIRO AG. He takes up the newly created position of Chief Growth Officer there in January 2027, reporting directly to CEO Oliver Behrens. He will own the group’s growth and brand strategy as well as the interplay of product, customer experience and marketing. Before Bitpanda, the Viennese executive was CEO of Interwetten Group and held leadership roles at Sportradar, as Trending Topics reported. flatexDEGIRO says it serves more than 3.5 million customers in 16 European countries and manages assets of more than 100 billion euros.
Where the IPO Plans Stand
What the latest reshuffle means for the listing plans remains open. Bloomberg reported on an IPO in Frankfurt in the first half of 2026 at a targeted valuation of four to five billion euros, as Trending Topics picked up. It was never officially confirmed. Enzersdorfer-Konrad said most recently that an IPO remains a possible option and one of several conceivable paths.
The environment for such a step is demanding right now. Sentiment in the crypto sector is mixed after the price setbacks of recent months, trading volumes and customer acquisition at brokers depend closely on it, and investors are valuing platforms with a large crypto share more cautiously. That is the phase in which the change at the top now lands, together with the rebuild of the entire leadership team.
