Blockchain-focused company Swisscom Blockchain AG has onboarded Ethereum (ETH) engineer Lukas Hohl as its new chief executive officer, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported on April 15. Hohl, who previously served at various IT and finance companies, including Blockchain’s parent company Swisscom, business consulting firm BearingPoint, consultancy group Sofgen, and management consulting company Synpulse, will now lead the firm’s blockchain strategy and facilitate the further development of the company. Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler, chief digital officer at Swisscom, commented on Hohl’s appointment, saying that "in the past, Lukas Hohl has built and managed companies, managed complex large-scale projects, is well networked in Switzerland and …

Major American cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched Coinbase Card, that enables its United Kingdom-based customers to pay in-store and online with cryptocurrency. The development was announced in a blog post published on April 10. The Coinbase Card is a Visa debit card powered by customers’ Coinbase account crypto balances, which allows them to make purchases with digital currencies worldwide. Coinbase instantly converts customers' cryptocurrency funds into fiat currency in order to complete the purchase. Coinbase also released the Coinbase Card app for iOS and Android, which links customers’ Coinbase accounts with the app and allows them to choose a particular …

The European Union Blockchain Observatory and Forum released a report entitled “Tokenization of physical assets and the impact of IoT and AI” on April 10. The report, authored by Dr. Tim Weingärtner, a professor at Lucerne University of Applied Sciences & Arts – School for Information Technology, features the “digital twin” concept, which refers to a digital replica of the physical world. This mirror world would be consist of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, big data, tokens representing physical objects, blockchain as a trusted ledger and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The report notes that blockchain would play a key role in …

Viennese crypto and fintech firm Bitpanda has received a payment service provider license from Austria’s financial regulator. The development was reported by Cointelegraph auf Deutsch on April 4. The license has reportedly been issued to Bitpanda Payments GmbH by the Austrian financial market authority (FMA) in accordance with the European Union’s Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). In force since January 2018, PDS2 introduced revised rules for payments service providers — whether traditional banks or fintech firms — across the European Economic Area (EEA) and the EU. Bitpanda, which operates a retail crypto brokerage platform, has said in a press release …

United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo has emphasized the agency’s commitment is to monitor, but not impede, the development of the crypto asset sector. Giancarlo made his remarks during a speech devoted to EU-U.S. regulatory cooperation for derivatives markets, delivered at the Eurofi Financial Forum in Bucharest, Romania on April 4. The chairman expressed his agency’s support of international efforts to review the effectiveness of the G20's derivatives reform agenda and to ensure they enhance, rather than stifle, derivatives markets. He noted that the CFTC is itself committed to making its own rules and regulations …

The European Union announced the launch of the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) on its official website on April 3. According to a Cointelegraph representative who attended today’s ceremony at the European Commission in Brussels, the more than 100 members who have signed the charter include IBM, Accenture and Deutsche Telekom. Among the blockchain-related members number Iota, Ripple, ConsenSys, and the Sovrin Foundation. Per the announcement, INATBA aims to bring together industry startups, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), regulators and standard setting bodies to bring blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) into the mainstream. During the Brussels ceremony, …

Austrian Minister for Digital and Economic Affairs, Margarete Schramboeck said that “we do not need regulation for blockchain,” Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reports on April 2. Schramboeck — who previously served as CEO of major Austrian fixed and mobile network operator A1 Telekom Austria — delivered her comments during the ANON Blockchain Summit discussion panel dedicated to “The role of government in the age of blockchain". Speaking about the development of appropriate regulations towards blockchain, the Minister said that "Europe has a strong tendency to overregulate. [...] And then we are surprised that there are no European companies in the top …

A new study shows that the fintech sector in Switzerland continues to grow, while traditional financial institutions are stagnating. The report was published by SwissBanking on April 1. The report dubbed “IFZ FinTech Study 2019” was prepared by the Lucerne University of Applied Studies with an aim to show developments in the fintech industry in 2018 and analyze how banks position themselves vis-avis the fintech industry. Per the report, the Swiss fintech sector showed significant growth in 2018. With 356 active companies by the end of the year, the industry reportedly grew by 62 percent. The sector reportedly registered larger …

Germany’s second largest stock exchange Börse Stuttgart is partnering with European digital publishing titan Axel Springer and its subsidiary Finanzen.net to jointly launch a blockchain-powered trading venue. The development was announced in an official press release from Börse Stuttgart on March 27. The new initiative will aim to combine investment information services and a blockchain-powered trading venue under the canopy of one platform. To realize the project, Börse Stuttgart — which reported trading volumes of 71.2 billion euro in 2018 — is set to become the majority shareholder in a forthcoming joint venture company between the three partners. Together, Axel …

Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAFM) has found that blockchain has far-reaching potential to improve asylum procedures. Following a successfully completed proof-of-concept (PoC), the findings were published on March 26 in a white paper. The paper was edited by BAFM and authored by the Project Group Business & Information Systems Engineering of the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT. The PoC — undertaken by BAFM, Fraunhofer FIT and an unnamed technology partner in the first half of 2018 — focused on evaluating blockchain’s potential to support two crucial aspects of asylum procedures: the creation of reliable and …

The legislative body of the Swiss government, the Federal Assembly, has approved a motion to instruct the Federal Council to adapt existing legislation for cryptocurrency regulation. Coitelegraph auf Deutsch reported on the development on March 20. The motion introduced by Liberal assemblyman Giovanni Merlini intends to instruct the Federal Council to adapt existing provisions on procedural instruments of judicial and administrative authorities, so that they can also be applied to cryptocurrencies. The Council approved the motion introduced with 99 to 83 votes in favor and 10 abstensions. The move aims to close perceived gaps in protecting cryptocurrency users from illicit …

Insurance giant AXA XL and insurance technology startup Assurely have jointly launched a new insurance product covering equity crowdfunding and Security Token Offerings (STOs), according to a press release published on March 6. The new product dubbed CrowdProtector is designed for issuers and investors, and purportedly protects new online capital formation strategies like equity crowdfunding and STOs. The product also aims increase trust, confidence and safety to potential investors guaranteeing that the issuer is insured. According to Ty Sagalow, CEO of Assurely, the parties have managed to increase underwriting. The releases states: “CrowdProtector provides Issuers protection against investor complaints and …