The CEO of Swiss-based financial institution SEBA Bank shared his predictions for Bitcoin in 2022. A boon for BTC bulls, Guido Buehler was optimistic about institutional adoption and a price increase to $75,000 per coin. He explained in an interview that, at SEBA, asset pools are looking for the right time to invest. However, they need the right counterparties and the necessary regulation in order to deploy capital. When pressed on whether Bitcoin (BTC) would hit new highs this year, Buehler thinks it’s possible, “the question is always time.” He noted that with BTC dominance bottoming out at 40%, it’s …

TCS Group, the owner of the major private Russian bank Tinkoff, is gaining exposure to digital assets. The firm has invested in Swiss digital asset service provider Aximetria, which is set to become the company’s first major crypto-related outfit, local news agency The Bell reported Wednesday. Citing data from Aximetria, the report suggests that TCS purchased 4,449 Aximetria shares worth 100 Swiss francs ($108) per share. Given that Aximetria’s total share capital was about 535,000 francs ($578,000), the publication reported TCS’ stake to be around 83.2%. A spokesperson for Tinkoff confirmed the news to Cointelegraph, stating that Aximetria will be …

Seba Bank, a Swiss-based digital assets banking platform regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, announced on Wednesday that it had completed a successful Series C funding round of 110 million Swiss franc, or $119 million U.S. dollars. Notable investors in the round included cryptocurrency exchange FTX, quantitative digital currency trading firm Alameda Research, decentralized finance asset management firm DeFi Technologies, and venture capital entities such as Altive, Ordway Selections and Summer Capital. The bank said it plans to use the funds to fuel international growth and drive demand from institutional investors in the digital assets industry. Seba has …

Sun Hung Kai, one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong, continues betting on the cryptocurrency industry by investing in Swiss crypto outfit Sygnum. Sygnum officially announced Thursday that it closed a $90 million Series B round led by Sun Hung Kai, a real estate giant and alternative investment firm in Hong Kong. According to Sun Hung Kai’s group executive chairman Lee Seng Huang, the company has a strategic vision to expand its fund management offerings into digital assets. “Amidst growing institutional demand and regulatory oversight of this sector, Sygnum, with its track record as a fully-regulated digital asset …

Italian luxury sports car manufacturer Ferrari is moving into the blockchain industry by inking a partnership with Swiss blockchain startup Velas Network. Ferrari officially announced Monday that it signed a multi-year agreement with Velas to jointly issue “exclusive digital content” for the Scuderia’s fans. Velas will also be the main sponsor for Ferrari Esports Series, the online series competing in the F1 Esports Series, the official digital championship including all teams participating in the FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The announcement describes Velas as a major company in the industry of digital assets and blockchain, emphasizing the startup’s focus on …

On Dec. 15, SEBA Bank, a licensed Swiss digital assets banking platform, launched a regulated digital token backed by physical gold and exchangeable for delivery. SEBA claimed that due to its regulatory-compliant nature and the low volatility of gold prices, the gold token could eventually be used as a stablecoin for on-chain transactions. In other words, the design of the gold token bears similarity to gold standards, where fiat currencies are backed by their exchangeability to physical gold in addition to faith entrusted in governments that issue them. In 1971, U.S. President Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold …

On Wednesday, the Banque de France (BdF), the BIS Innovation Hub (BISIH), and the Swiss National Bank (SNB) announced the success of a pilot run of a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), titled Project Jura. The project aimed to investigate cross‑border settlement with euro and Swiss franc wCBDCs, and launched on a third‑party distributed ledger technology platform. The experimental technology explored in Project Jura first consisted of a decentralized peer‑to‑peer network of computer nodes (Corda) to validate transactions while simultaneously ensuring that all legal, regulatory, and business rules of governing nations are satisfied. Then, there was the tokenization of …

SBI Digital Asset Holdings, a fully owned subsidiary of Japanese banking giant SBI Holdings, announced a joint crypto venture with Switzerland’s SIX digital exchange (SDX). The joint venture would be set up in Singapore through a crypto issuance company and aims to become a regional liquidity hub for institutions. SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said: “This is an important step in building the necessary global infrastructure for widespread institutional adoption of digital assets. Together with SDX‘s strength in Switzerland and our planned digital exchange in Osaka, this venture will establish a powerful institutional corridor between Europe and Asia.” The partnership …

Bitcoin Capital AG released two new exchange-traded products on the SIX Swiss Exchange: the FiCAS Active Bitcoin ETP (BTCB) and FiCAS Active Ethereum ETP (ETHB), which are actively managed by FICAS AG. Institutional investors, professional, and private investors in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the European Union (excluding Hungary) can now invest in the new offerings via their bank or broker just as they would with other listed financial assets such as equities or bonds. "Our purpose is to grant investors safe and easy access to digital assets and are convinced that crypto assets will soon be part of the diversification strategy …

After hitting a new all-time high price approaching $67,000 earlier on Wednesday, the market capitalization of Bitcoin briefly surpassed the total market cap of the Swiss franc. According to data from Fiatmarketcap, Bitcoin’s market cap was more than $1.263 trillion when the price of the crypto asset reached an all-time high of roughly $67,000 earlier on Wednesday. This briefly exceeded the value of the circulating supply of the Swiss franc at 1,158,489,000,000 CHF, or roughly $1.26 trillion. AssetDash also lists the total Bitcoin (BTC) market cap within $500 billion of Amazon. The price rise that led to Bitcoin flippening the …

2B4CH, a Swiss non-profit think tank assisting the state in exploring cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and blockchain technology, is launching an initiative that could make Bitcoin one of the country’s reserve assets. On Friday, the association announced plans to start a popular federal initiative by collecting 100,000 signatures for the introduction of Bitcoin to article 99 clause 3 of the Swiss federal constitution. The initiative specifically proposes to add Bitcoin to the list of assets held by the Swiss central bank, which would change the constitutional clause to: “The Swiss National Bank shall create sufficient currency reserves from its revenues; …

Arab Bank Switzerland announced Tuesday that it will integrate staking, trading and custody services onto the Tezos blockchain’s native token (XTZ) in a bid to provide a digital asset environment for institutions, corporations and high net-worth individuals. The 50-year old establishment partnered with Tezos in the hope of benefiting from the ecosystem's inherent focus on energy conservation, low-gas fees and fast upgrades. Managing Director of Arab Bank Switzerland, Rani Jabban commented on the institution’s ambitions following the announcement: “Digital Assets are a cornerstone of our strategy, requiring strong agility while complying with the highest security standards. Our mission is to …