Swiss crypto broker Bitcoin Suisse has partnered with fintech firm Amun to launch a new crypto exchange-traded product (ETP) on the country’s stock exchange SIX. “ABBA” Bitcoin and Ether ETP goes live As industry media outlet The Block reported on Oct. 3, the joint Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) product, trading under the ticker ABBA, is already live on SIX exchange. The ETP is weighted 90% Bitcoin and 10% Ether. It represents the latest crypto offering to launch on SIX, which already features dedicated Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and other ETPs. Amun CEO Hany Rashwan added: “It represents a …

Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Stripe are reportedly unsure whether they wish to become paid-up participants in Facebook’s Libra digital currency. According to a Bloomberg article on Oct. 2 — citing “people familiar with the matter” — the four payment giants have reservations about the social network’s project. Sources: Facebook “oversold” regulator support The companies formed part of the cohort which originally said they wished to act as nodes for Libra, subject to a fee of $10 million. Libra has since faced a major backlash from regulators worldwide and the four now share concerns their own reputations could suffer. According to …

Mark Branson, head of Swiss financial supervisor FINMA, has said he is more concerned with the dark corners of cryptocurrency than he is with Facebook’s stablecoin Libra. Switzerland will not make Libra impossible On Oct. 1, Reuters reported that Branson is more wary of crypto projects that develop without official scrutiny — and said Libra “is being done transparently.” Branson added: “I am much more nervous about projects which develop in a dark corner in the financial system somewhere, spread themselves out through cyberspace and one day are too big to be stopped.” Branson explained that Libra will face the …

Swiss Digital Exchange (SDX), a digital asset trading platform by Switzerland’s principal SIX Swiss Exchange, will reportedly launch its initial digital offering (IDO) in 2020. SDX security token The not-yet-launched SDX has reportedly set up a global consortium of financial institutions to back its IDO in the middle of 2020, Coindesk reports on Sept. 30. Thomas Kindler, who took over as SDX CEO on Sept. 1, elaborated that the consortium comprises a group of investors such as banks and market infrastructure providers intending to legitimize the technology and raise capital. According to the report, the IDO would be similar to …

The German-speaking world has experienced another week full of exciting developments in the crypto industry, with a Berlin-based fintech startup receiving $1.5 million to develop its own blockchain, German experts warning about Facebook’s crypto coin, and the Federation of German Industries asking the government to create suitable conditions for blockchain. Here is the past week of crypto and blockchain news in review, as originally reported by Cointelegraph auf Deutsch. German fintech startup receives $1.5M to develop its own blockchain On Sept. 23, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported that the Berlin-based fintech startup Centrifuge received funding from the public investment bank Berlin …

When Facebook published the Libra white paper in June 2019, shockwaves were felt across the crypto markets the world over. Triggering the end of a long bear market, Bitcoin soared past the iconic $10,000 mark, and many prominent altcoins rose on the back of a phenomenon now known as the “Libra Effect.” As so often occurs alongside milestone cryptocurrency announcements, Facebook’s venture into digital payments was also met with a barrage of criticism. Regulators and politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are calling either for intense scrutiny of the project or an outright ban. Fears abound that by launching …

Peter Wuffli, the former CEO of Switzerland’s largest bank UBS and director at Swiss crypto bank Sygnum, wants to tap the “$220 billion market of institutions and private individuals who already own cryptocurrencies.” Local news outlet SwissInfo reported on Sept. 26 that Wuffli has shown excitement concerning the potential of crypto assets. In an interview, he told the outlet: “The most immediate opportunity is the existing $220 billion market of institutions and private individuals who already own cryptocurrencies. Thousands of clients have contacted us for a one-stop-shop for asset custody, loans and trading cryptocurrencies seamlessly with fiat currencies.” Asset tokenization …

The ripples of the Libra effect are beginning to lap against the shores of Europe, with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire suggesting that Europe should throw its hat into the ring and launch its own digital currency. Le Maire’s announcement comes at a time when EU politicians are becoming increasingly vocal about Libra and digital currencies in general. Speaking at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Helsinki, Le Maire told journalists that he would discuss the feasibility of a European public digital currency with his counterparts in October. Charles Hoskinson, CEO of blockchain engineering startup IOHK, explained to …

A Switzerland-based company says its goal is to empower enterprises with the tools they need to use blockchain in a sustainable way. CoreLedger’s token economy operating system (TEOS) has enjoyed success stories with real-world applications. One of them is Smartmo — a startup manufacturing and operating innovative solutions for bike parking and helmet storage. The added value that Smartmo brings to the biking ecosystem is that users can reserve a parking space in advance. It also provides increased safety, especially for expensive bikes such as E-Bikes. Crypto is integrated into the system in that users pay parking fees in digital …

Switzerland's SIX Swiss Exchange has postponed the launch of its “fully regulated” crypto trading platform SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). According to the official announcement published on Sept. 23, SIX has launched a prototype of its digital exchange and the central securities depository (CSD). The full launch is now expected in Q4 2020. The document explains: “The objective of the prototype is to showcase the future of financial markets to the community and obtain feedback as well as demonstrate that a distributed CSD – based on DLT – can be integrated with a central order-book stock exchange model to ensure fair …

Peter Wuffli — the former CEO of major Swiss multinational investment bank UBS — says the advent of new, regulated actors in crypto is drawing the attention of big-name banks. Wuffli made his remarks during an interview with Finews, published on Sept 23. In 2008, he had left his role as CEO of UBS as the bank’s financial crisis losses spiraled, relinquishing over $10 million of his pay one month after the institution was bailed out by the Swiss government. More than a decade later, the former banker and recently-appointed board member of licensed Swiss cryptocurrency bank Sygnum observed of …

The University of St. Gallen in Switzerland is setting its sights on blockchain technology to fight fake diplomas, a type of fraud that has been on the rise globally in recent years. Degree certification According to a CNN Money Switzerland interview from Sept. 19, the University of St. Gallen has announced that it is introducing a blockchain-based pilot project to verify the authenticity of its degrees in a matter of seconds rather than several days. The university’s CIO Harald Rotter said: “I saw that it could be necessary and it could be a valid use case to transfer or to …