Switzerland’s leading provider of online financial and trading services, Swissquote Bank, has partnered with bitcoin exchange Bitstamp to offer bitcoin trading on its platform, available to 200,000+ private and institutional investors.
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Bitcoin Trading Launched by Swiss Regulated Bank
Switzerland’s leading online financial and trading services provider, Swissquote Bank, announced on Friday that it has launched bitcoin trading on its platform, available to all customers with a Swissquote trading account. Customers can exchange euros or U.S. dollars for bitcoins in the same way they would any other currencies offered on the platform, ”except without access to leverage,” the announcement revealed. “The minimum bitcoin transaction is set at five USD/EUR and the maximum at 100,000 USD/EUR.” Fees range between 0.5% to 1% based on the amount invested.
The company wrote:
Swissquote is the first online bank in Europe to offer bitcoin investing.
Swissquote Bank holds a banking license issued by the Swiss Federal Financial Market Supervisory Authority (Finma) and is also a member of the Swiss Bankers Association. Its parent company, Swissquote Group Holding Ltd, is listed on the Six Swiss Exchange. “As Swissquote Bank is also a regulated bank, traders and partners benefit from the highest Swiss banking security and transparency standards,” according to the company’s website.
With a staff of over 500 serving customers in over 120 countries, the bank claims that “today, we rank among the top 10 online Forex brokers in the world, empowering over 200,000 private investors and institutional clients to trade a wide range of currencies, commodities and indices.”
Partnership with Bitstamp
To facilitate bitcoin trading, the company has partnered with Luxembourg-based Bitstamp, which is the first and only bitcoin exchange to obtain a license from the European Union. “This is our first foray into the world of bitcoin,” Swissquote CEO Marc Bürki said, adding that “we wanted to work with a partner we could rely on. Bitstamp’s focus on regulation and compliance, as well as its payment institution licence, made it the standout choice for our needs.”
Bitstamp also made an announcement on Friday about the partnership, stating:
Swissquote today launched BTC/EUR and BTC/USD trading on its platform, with Bitstamp providing full back-office support. There are plans to expand this partnership in the future, with Bitstamp bringing more of Swissquote’s services to its customers.
The bank explained that “Bitstamp provides pricing data and executes bitcoin transactions for Swissquote customers.”
Bitstamp believes that with bitcoin available in Swissquote customers’ domestic trading environment, “we are well on the way to achieving our long-term goal – the full integration of bitcoin with traditional financial services.”
Bitcoin Interest on the Rise
In Friday’s announcement, Bürki revealed:
Many investors are interested in cryptocurrencies, but are afraid to trade them, because the players in this market are mostly little-known, and they often require the transfer of funds to a foreign account.
Swissquote’s announcement came just a few days after another Swiss bank, Falcon Private Bank, announced that it will offer bitcoin asset management to their customers through a partnership with Bitcoin Suisse AG. Last week, Bitcoin.com also reported on Vontobel bitcoin tracker certificates, listed on the Six Swiss Exchange, gaining popularity in Switzerland.
What do you think about Swissquote offering bitcoin trading to its customers? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Swissquote, Bitstamp, Finma
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