A Guide to Young Platform post-MiCAR

When you open the Young Platform app or website, even though you use the same credentials (email and password) to log in to your account, you are actually faced with two different ways of buying and selling crypto. They are called Young Platform Base and Young Platform Pro. They seem like two similar products, but beneath the surface, they operate very differently — and understanding this difference helps you choose the right one for you.

The difference can be summarised as follows:

On Base, you buy or sell directly from Young Platform, just like you would in a high street shop.
On Pro, you ask Young Platform to look for the best offer on other markets for you, acting as your “personal shopper”.

In the rest of this guide, we explain what actually changes, what happens when you press “Buy”, what “bilateral execution” means, what the famous “Execution Policy” is, and — most importantly — which of the two modes to choose based on your needs.

The Two Modes, Explained with an Analogy

Young Platform Base = Your Trusted Local Shop

Imagine you want to buy a kilo of apples. You go to your local corner shop. The shopkeeper takes the fruit from his shelf and tells you: “A kilo of apples is €3.” You agree, pay, and walk out with your bag. The transaction is directly between you and him. There is no one else in between. If wholesale apple prices go up tomorrow, that’s the shopkeeper’s business — the price he gave you is already locked in.

How it works on Young Platform Base: when you tap “Buy Bitcoin”, Young Platform shows you a price. If you accept, you are buying Bitcoin from Young Platform. Young Platform is your counterparty: they are the ones selling to you (or buying from you) the crypto. It is the simplest, most immediate option, perfect for those who want to make quick transactions without having to think about anything else.

Technical jargon refers to this mode as “bilateral exchange” because only two parties are involved: you and Young Platform. In legal terms, it is the “service under Article 77 of MiCAR” (MiCAR being the European Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation).

Young Platform Pro = Your Personal Shopper

Now, imagine instead that you want to buy a kilo of apples at the absolute best price in town. You don’t want to trust just one shopkeeper; you want someone to go around all the markets, compare prices, and buy where it is cheapest for you. You delegate this task to an assistant. You give them instructions (“buy 1 kg of Golden Delicious apples, do not spend more than €3”). They go out, search, buy on your behalf, and bring you your shopping. If they cannot find anyone selling at that price, they return empty-handed.

How it works on Young Platform Pro: when you place an order, Young Platform does not sell you the crypto directly. Instead, it goes out to find the best available counterparty on other markets (other crypto platforms) and buys on your behalf. In this mode, Young Platform acts as an intermediary, not a seller.

In technical terms, this mode is called “execution of orders on behalf of clients” or the “service under Article 78 of MiCAR”.

What Actually Happens When You Press “Buy” or “Sell”

On Young Platform Base

Open the trading screen, choose the crypto and the amount (either in crypto or fiat/euros).
Young Platform shows you a guaranteed price for 5 seconds (30 seconds if you are buying with a card, Apple Pay/Google Pay, or using the assisted OTC channel, i.e., via phone/chat with an operator). In the industry, this is called a “firm quote”: it means a “locked-in price”, meaning that if you accept it within those 5 seconds, Young Platform is obliged to honour it.
Before confirming, you will see the final total price (referred to as “Total Consideration”) — which is exactly how much the transaction will cost you, including fees.
If you accept within 5 seconds, the transaction is complete. Your euros (or crypto) leave your account, and the crypto (or euros) enter immediately.
If you do not accept in time, the price expires, and a new quote (updated to reflect the current market) is generated.

The “price” you see does not appear out of thin air: Young Platform has an internal system called the Pricing Engine. It is an automated engine that monitors crypto prices across major global markets (large international crypto platforms) and adds a margin (the spread) to lock in and guarantee the price for you. The Pricing Engine always operates the same way, using predefined, clearly written rules; no human decides whether to charge you more or less. The calculation rules are detailed in a public document called the “Cryptocurrency Exchange Procedure”, which is described in the Terms and Conditions.

On Young Platform Pro

Open the Pro screen, choose the crypto, the quantity and — starting from 1 July 2026 — the maximum price (for buying) or minimum price (for selling) at which you want your order to be executed.
Your order is a Limit Order Fill-or-Kill (FOK). Let’s break down what this means in simple terms:
- Limit Order = an order with a price limit, meaning “only execute if the price is equal to or better than the one I am specifying”.
- Fill or Kill (FOK) = “all or nothing”. If there is sufficient supply at my price to fill the entire order, execute it immediately. If not, cancel the whole thing; I don’t want partial executions.
Your order goes into a Young Platform module called the Smart Order Router (“SOR”).
The Smart Order Router looks at all the external markets (liquidity providers) connected to Young Platform and decides where to route the order to get the best result for you. The rules it follows to make this decision are laid out in a public document called the Execution Policy (see below).
If the Smart Order Router immediately finds a counterparty at your price, the order is executed. If not, the order is cancelled, and your money remains exactly where it is. In trading terms, this is called a “kill” (cancellation).
On Pro, the price you pay is not decided by Young Platform: it is decided by the external market where the order is executed. Young Platform simply routes your order there and delivers the outcome back to you. Young Platform adds an intermediary commission (which is transparently shown in the fee schedule) to the amount paid to the external market.

In short, keep these operational rules in mind:

Purchase: you must set a price that is equal to or higher than the current market price; otherwise, the order will be cancelled (KIL).
Sale: you must specify a price equal to or lower than the market price to prevent the order from being cancelled (KIL).

Detailed Fee Calculation

On Young Platform Base

The amount you enter always represents the gross value you wish to spend or the net value you wish to receive.

Specifically:

In the case of a purchase in EUR, the fee is deducted from the amount entered.
For a purchase with a crypto amount (e.g. BTC), the fee in EUR is added to the required total.
If a sale is set for an amount in EUR, the fee is applied to ensure you receive exactly the desired amount.
In a sale with a crypto amount (e.g. BTC), the fee is deducted from the proceeds of the sale.

On Young Platform Pro

For Pro, the system operates based on the so-called “left-hand currency” (the cryptocurrency of the trading pair):

Buy Transaction: the intermediary commission is added to the transaction value. The total cost charged will therefore be calculated as (quantity * execution price) + commission. This ensures that the requested quantity of crypto is purchased in full, with the service cost added to the total in EUR.
Sell Transaction: The commission is deducted from the gross proceeds obtained from the trade. The net amount you receive in your wallet will be calculated as: (quantity * execution price) – commission.

Meaning of “Execution Policy”

Although it may seem complex, the Execution Policy is simply the internal set of regulations that guides Young Platform in choosing the most suitable market to execute orders on the Pro platform. Using the personal shopper analogy: it is the set of instructions you give to the person buying on your behalf.

Therefore, the Execution Policy is the regulatory framework Young Platform sets for itself to decide where to execute your order on Pro. Going back to our shopping assistant analogy: when you commission someone to buy for you, you want them to follow specific rules so you don’t get any surprises. For example:

“Go where it’s cheapest first.”
“But if the cheapest shop is closed for half an hour a day, it’s better to go to a reliable one that is always open.”
“If you need to buy 10 kg, go to a supermarket that definitely has it in stock, not a small shop that might only have 2 kg.”

Young Platform’s Execution Policy is the formal, written version of these rules. The European MiCAR regulation requires anyone performing execution on behalf of clients to have a written Execution Policy and specifies which factors must be considered when deciding where to send the order. These are called “Best Execution factors” and are:

Price: where it costs less (or yields more, if you are selling).
Total costs: not just the price, but also commissions and ancillary costs.
Speed of execution: how quickly the order is completed.
Likelihood of execution and settlement: how likely it is that the order will actually be completed and the crypto will reach its destination.
Size of the order: buying a fraction versus a massive amount is not the same; the best market can change.
Nature of the order: certain unique orders require specific markets.

Young Platform weighs these factors based on a public hierarchy of importance it has established. You can view it here: youngplatform.com/en/legal/best-execution-policy/.

Note: The Execution Policy only applies to Pro (because on Pro, Young Platform acts as an intermediary). There is no Execution Policy on Base, because Young Platform is your direct counterparty and the price is set by the Pricing Engine — which follows a different methodology.

Common Technical Terms, Translated into Plain English

Base or Pro: Which to Choose?

Choose Young Platform Base if…

You are new to crypto and want something straightforward.
You care more about price certainty than finding the absolute best price.
You make small to medium-sized transactions (from a few euros to a few thousand) without recurring thresholds.
You don’t want to worry about “where” your order is being executed: you just want to know how much you are paying and how much you are receiving.
You prefer to know the exact cost of the transaction upfront, before pressing “Confirm”.

Choose Young Platform Pro if…

You have some experience and want to see what price the market can offer you in real-time.
You want to set a maximum (or minimum) price and avoid having your order executed if it is not reached.
You make larger transactions and want Young Platform to seek out the best external counterparty for you.
You are willing to accept that your order might be completely cancelled if it does not find an immediate counterparty at your price (the risk of the Fill or Kill mode).

A Special Case: OTC Desk

If you need to make a large transaction (typically over €20,000) and want a pre-determined price agreed upon with a human operator, there is the OTC Desk channel. It works like this: you call (or write in an authenticated chat) a Young Platform operator, explain what you want to do, the operator sends you a firm quote valid for 30 seconds, you accept (or reject) it, and the transaction is complete. Technically, this remains a bilateral exchange just like Base, but with dedicated assistance.

What Happens to Your Crypto: Custody

Whether you operate on Base or Pro, the crypto in your account always remains in the same digital vaults at Young Platform. This service is called custody and is governed by Article 75 of the MiCAR regulation.

The main rules are:

Segregation: your crypto is kept separate from Young Platform’s own assets. If Young Platform were to face financial difficulties tomorrow, your crypto would not end up in the creditors’ pool: it is yours, plain and simple.
Internal Ledger: there is an accounting register that tracks exactly what belongs to each client. Every time you buy or sell, the register updates.
Secure Tech Wallets: crypto is stored using specific technologies (fractional keys, specialised tech custodians) to protect it from cyber theft.

Please note — highly important: custody does not eliminate market risks. Crypto values can rise or fall by 50% or more in a single day. Custody means your crypto is physically/digitally secure, not that its value is guaranteed.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. If I buy Bitcoin on Base, who sells me the Bitcoin? Young Platform sells them to you. They are your contractual counterparty. The BTC you receive are taken from Young Platform’s “warehouse” (inventory).

2. If I buy Bitcoin on Pro, who sells me the Bitcoin? An external market (another platform) sells them to you. Young Platform acts solely as an intermediary: it takes your order, routes it to the market chosen according to its Execution Policy, and delivers the BTC back to you.

3. What happens if I place an order on Pro and nobody wants to sell at my price? The order is cancelled in its entirety (the “Kill” in Fill or Kill). Your funds remain untouched in your account, and you can try again with a different price.

4. What is the “chart” I see on Pro if the internal Order Book no longer exists? The chart shows historical crypto prices across the main external markets (liquidity providers) to which Young Platform connects. It is for informational purposes only: it helps you decide at what price to place your Limit Order.

5. If I have a problem, who do I talk to? Young Platform’s Customer Service, which you can reach at support.y oungplatform.com/hc/en-us. If you are not satisfied with their response, you can submit a formal complaint via the process outlined at youngplatform.com/en/legal/complaints/. As a last resort, you can contact the Italian supervisory authorities (Consob and the Bank of Italy).

6. Are my crypto-assets guaranteed like bank deposits? No. Crypto-assets are not covered by the Interbank Deposit Protection Fund (which protects bank accounts up to €100,000) or the National Guarantee Fund (which protects financial security, investors). The European MiCAR regulation requires all authorised platforms to state this clearly. This does not mean your crypto is less protected from theft or Young Platform’s insolvency — custody with segregation protects you from that. It means no one guarantees the value of the crypto: if it drops, it drops. It is important to highlight, however, that Young Platform has taken out targeted insurance policies designed both to protect against cybersecurity risks and to safeguard the assets held in custody.

Key Takeaways Before You Begin

On Base, your counterparty is Young Platform. You get a guaranteed price before confirming.
On Pro, Young Platform acts as an intermediary to external markets (liquidity providers). You specify the price (Limit), and if no counterparty is found at your price, the order is cancelled.
The Execution Policy is the set of regulations Young Platform follows on Pro to choose where to route your orders. It is public.
Your crypto is held separately from Young Platform’s funds (accounting segregation). It is safe from YP’s corporate issues, but not from market risk (crashes, volatility).
Crypto is not guaranteed like bank deposits or traditional financial investments.
If you don’t understand something, stop: read the official documentation, contact Customer Support, and do not press “Confirm” without understanding what you are signing.

This guide is for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or a personalised recommendation. For the complete and legally binding contractual conditions, please refer to the General Terms and Conditions of Young Platform published at youngplatform.com/legal.