Author: Editorial Office CVJ.CH

What happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Current events and background reports in the weekly review.

The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is moving forward with the Helvetia III pilot project, becoming the first central bank in the world to issue a tokenized central bank digital currency (CBDC) on a regulated third-party platform. The SNB has been extensively researching the development of a digital central bank currency (CBDC) and identified early on the privacy issues associated with a central registry of all financial transactions. As part of “Project Helvetia,” research has been underway since 2019 on how to settle securities transactions and cross-border payments using blockchain technology and a digital Swiss franc. Despite the potential benefits of…

The Zug-based startup Zippy aims for global cryptocurrency mass appeal with several unique features of its new app.

The Swiss Metaverse Association publishes the first Swiss position paper on regulating the Metaverse.

The US dollar stablecoin market is currently concentrated in the hands of two companies: Tether and Circle. Now, Ripple wants to enable blockchain payments with a dollar stablecoin via the XRP ledger. Is the company waving the white flag and admitting the failure of its own XRP cryptocurrency? Ripple was founded in 2012 as a crypto startup with the goal of creating a decentralized digital payment system. The company wanted to enable low-cost cross-border transactions and differentiate itself from Bitcoin by offering a more scalable solution. The foundation of this payment network was to be the XRP cryptocurrency, formerly known…

What happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Current events and background reports in the weekly review.

The Zug-based crypto bank AMINA Bank and the Swiss service provider Taurus are strengthening their partnership with a multi-year agreement.

The CVJ.CH team wishes the entire readership a happy Easter and a peaceful holiday season.

What happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Current events and background reports in the weekly review.

What happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Current events and background reports in the weekly review.

Ethereum is the second largest decentralized blockchain network after Bitcoin. Since 2015, the native cryptocurrency Ether (ETH) is also being traded on various exchanges. However, this may not be so easy in the future. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) wants to classify Ether as a security and has launched an aggressive campaign to do so. Last Wednesday, a disturbing headline made the rounds. The Ethereum Foundation, based in Zug, Switzerland, is under investigation by a government agency. It’s a confidential investigation with confidentiality obligations. Later, the financial magazine Fortune, citing inside sources, revealed that the SEC had launched…

BlackRock is launching a first tokenization project on the Ethereum blockchain. In partnership with the US firm Securitize, the asset manager is tokenizing an “Institutional Digital Liquidity” fund, starting with an initial liquidity of 100 million USD coin (USDC). After launching a spot-based Bitcoin ETF, BlackRock is taking the next step in the blockchain industry while the approval for a spot Ether ETF is still pending. CEO Larry Fink sees significant potential in so-called tokenization. This involves the representation of traditional assets also known as Real-World Assets (RWAs) on the blockchain. The first approach by the institution is taking place…

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is an independent regulatory authority with a legal mandate to supervise financial markets. Since 2013, the authority has advocated for technology-neutral crypto regulation. Over the years, however, criticism of FINMA has grown, accusing the authority of resting on its laurels. At its annual media conference today, FINMA published its annual report for the year 2023. As expected, the authority focuses on the takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS. FINMA devotes about four of 128 pages to crypto assets. The report discusses staking, the new reporting system for crypto assets, a critical examination of…

Despite new crypto offerings from various Swiss banks, UBS remains highly critical. Is the major bank missing out a megatrend?

What happened this week in the world of blockchain and cryptocurrencies? Current events and background reports in the weekly review.

The Swiss stock exchange SIX offers 161 crypto-based ETPs through the latest inclusion of the issuer issuance.swiss AG.