Buying PAX Gold in Germany: what still works

Can you buy PAXG in Germany?

Yes, with one important limit. You can buy PAX Gold from other users on an exchange that serves Germany, and the clearest example is Kraken’s PAXG/EUR order book. You cannot buy it from Paxos, the issuer, and you cannot redeem it with Paxos as an EU resident. Paxos says so directly on its product page: “PAXG is currently unavailable in the EU”.

That leaves a market that is smaller and less convenient than many Germans expect. The big German-speaking apps, Bitpanda and Bison, do not list PAXG at all. Coinbase lists it only in dollars. And CEX.IO, which lists PAXG/EUR, is not taking new EU customers. This page explains what that means and which route makes sense. The PAXG price in euros is in the live widgets on our price page.

Paxos and the EU: primary vs secondary market

PAXG has two markets. In the primary market, verified customers open an account with Paxos Trust Company, N.A., send dollars, and receive newly created tokens; later they redeem tokens for dollars or, from 430 PAXG, a physical bar delivered in London. In the secondary market, people trade existing tokens with each other on exchanges.

Paxos’s statement concerns the primary market. Its EU subsidiary, Paxos Issuance Europe Oy in Finland, issues the USDG dollar stablecoin under MiCA, not PAXG. Paxos does not say why PAXG is excluded. Our reading is that a token tied to gold would be treated as an asset-referenced token under MiCA, which needs an authorised EU issuer. That is our interpretation, not a Paxos statement.

What does that mean in practice? Three things. Your only exit is selling on an exchange, so liquidity matters more for you than for a US buyer. An EU exchange could delist PAXG if its compliance view changes, and you would then need to withdraw to a wallet or sell. And the backing is unaffected: every PAXG, wherever it trades, is covered by the same allocated gold and the same monthly attestation.

BaFin, MiCA and the KMAG

The law. The EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has applied in Germany since 30 December 2024. Germany added national rules in the Kryptomärkteaufsichtsgesetz (KMAG), which names the supervisor and sets procedure. Firms that already held a German crypto-custody licence under the Banking Act (KWG) got a short grandfathering period, now over.

The regulator. BaFin, the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority, is Germany’s competent authority for crypto-asset service providers. It licenses German firms and receives passporting notices from CASPs licensed elsewhere in the EU. It does not approve individual tokens for trading.

Exchange practice. Many exchanges serving German customers hold their MiCA licence abroad. According to secondary sources, Kraken and Coinbase are licensed by the Central Bank of Ireland, while Bitpanda is reported as licensed by BaFin (some sources say the Austrian FMA). We could not confirm these on the registers in this pass, so check the ESMA interim register yourself.

Where PAXG/EUR trades

We checked every venue on 12 October 2026, through its own API where possible. Only one euro market is both verified and active.

Kraken is the practical choice. Its public API listed PAXG against EUR, USD, BTC and ETH. You fund in euros by SEPA, buy PAXG/EUR, and either hold or withdraw. Kraken publishes its fee schedule on kraken.com; check it before trading, as the rate depends on the product and your volume.

Crypto.com Exchange and Bitstamp both show PAXG/EUR pairs, but on our check the first looked stale and the second had no volume. A pair with no trades is not a market; your order would wait or fill at a poor price. Robinhood has a PAXG page on its EU site, which may conflict with Paxos’s statement; we did not confirm that it is tradeable from Germany. Bitvavo showed no PAXG.

CEX.IO is a long-running exchange founded in 2013 and licensed as a money transmitter in 38 US states. It lists PAXG/EUR, but under its terms of 1 July 2026 it does not onboard new EU or EEA users while its MiCA application in Spain is pending. If you are new, it is not an option from Germany today. The full list of global venues is on our PAXG exchanges page.

Bitpanda, Bison and the gold alternatives

Many German readers start with “wo kann man PAX Gold kaufen” because their usual app does not show it. That is expected. Bitpanda’s public ticker has no PAXG, and Bison’s coin list shows none either. Bitpanda instead offers Bitpanda Metals: one token equals one gram of gold, stored by Brink’s in Switzerland. It is a different product from a different issuer, held inside the Bitpanda account rather than as a freely transferable public token.

A third option is the classic one: exchange-traded gold securities such as Xetra-Gold, bought through a normal Depot at a German broker, or gold ETCs. They sit inside the securities system, with familiar statements and brokers. PAXG gives you something they don’t: you can move it to your own wallet and sell any day of the week. They give you something PAXG cannot in the EU today: a direct issuer relationship. Our PAXG vs gold comparison covers bars, coins and funds in more depth.

Tax: §23 EStG and the one-year rule

This section summarises the general rules; it is not tax advice. For your own case, ask a Steuerberater or your Finanzamt.

Germany treats gains from private sales of crypto-assets as “private Veräußerungsgeschäfte” under §23 EStG. The key rule is the holding period. If you hold a token for more than one year before selling, the gain is tax-free. If you sell within a year, the gain is taxed at your personal income tax rate. Since the 2024 tax year, short-term gains are tax-free only if your total gains from all private sales stay under €1,000 a year. This is a Freigrenze, not a Freibetrag: at €1,000 or more, the whole amount is taxable, not just the excess. The BMF published updated guidance on crypto-assets in a letter dated 6 March 2025.

Separate rules apply to other income such as staking or lending rewards, which falls under §22 Nr. 3 EStG with its own €256 threshold. PAXG has no native staking, but some platforms pay interest on it; that income would count here.

Does it matter whether PAXG counts as a crypto-asset or as a claim on gold? For the one-year rule, much less than you might think, because physical gold held privately also becomes tax-free after one year. Physical investment gold is also free of VAT. But the classification can matter for edge cases, such as lending PAXG out or using it in DeFi, and we found no German ruling specific to PAXG. Keep exchange statements, wallet addresses and dates. A crypto tax tool makes this easier.

A practical route for German residents

Here is the route we would follow today. Our general how-to-buy guide explains order types and fees.

1. Check the exchange on the ESMA register

   Confirm the legal entity holds a MiCA licence and has notified Germany.

2. Open and verify an account

   Expect ID checks and a source-of-funds question. After verification, confirm PAXG is shown for your region.

3. Deposit euros by SEPA

   Use your own German or EU bank account in your name.

4. Buy PAXG/EUR with a limit order

   Compare the ask with the live euro gold price. Start small to see how the book fills.

5. Withdraw to self-custody

   Send to a hardware or software wallet on Ethereum and check the official contract address first.

6. Note the purchase date

   Your one-year clock under §23 EStG starts with each purchase.

What can go wrong

Delisting. Because Paxos does not offer PAXG in the EU, the secondary market here depends on each exchange’s view of MiCA. If your exchange stops PAXG trading for EU residents, you may only be allowed to sell or withdraw. Keep a wallet ready.

Thin euro liquidity. Outside Kraken, euro pairs are inactive. Never place a market order on a stale book. No direct redemption. You cannot turn PAXG into a bar or dollars with Paxos from Germany. Issuer powers. Paxos can freeze addresses and upgrade the contract; read is PAX Gold safe for the details.

Finally, watch for fakes. Tokens called “PAXG” on other chains, or offered by unknown apps with high fixed yields, are not Paxos’s product. If you also look at the Polish market or bank in złoty, see our Poland guide, and for a wider view the countries hub.