Crypto World: Xapo leaves Hong Kong for Switzerland
Xapo is among the biggest and most popular names when it comes to the world of cryptocurrencies. The company, which is primarily known for their cold storage for cryptocurrencies, is also popularly known for its cryptocurrency wallets and for its Bitcoin debit card services. Xapo is now moving major operations from their Hong Kong based office to their Switzerland office.
Xapo has, for a long time, operated out of Hong Kong. The company, however, is now moving base to Zug in Switzerland – which is rapidly emerging as one of the hottest crypto-hubs of Europe. This move has been made keeping in mind the non-US Bitcoin wallet customer services, which are having a hard time because of the regulations from Hong Kong. Xapo President Ted Rogers said: “It was once thought that Hong Kong was the holy grail of crypto regulations. But it has become more opaque,” Xapo president Ted Rogers told Swissinfo during the World Web Forum in Zurich. The executive further elaborated: It’s a reality of this industry that you have to be agile and react to regulatory changes all the time. Swiss regulators are smart, interested and sophisticated in dealing with the financial markets … Nothing has changed my belief that Switzerland is the right place for a blockchain or crypto project.
Xapo is incorporated in Hong Kong but Rogers revealed its status is now “an open question.” He did not go into details about what the restructuring would bring to Switzerland but at the moment his company has around 250 employees around the world, while less than 10 are working in its Zug office.
According to a report from last May, Xapo held over 6.25 percent of all BTC in circulation. At the time, when bitcoin core was trading at over $9,000 per coin, the digital cash was worth over $10 billion. It’s believed the cryptocurrency is stored in a former military bunker in the Swiss Alps.
A number of European nations and regions are becoming crypto-friendly. Switzerland is among the most credible of such names. Other names on the list include the likes of the Isle of Man, Malta, Gibraltar and Estonia. A significant portion of the economy of these countries depend upon these firms setting up their offices with them. The Xapo president had previously said that one of the best reasons to do business in Switzerland is the country’s decentralized model of governance.
While Xapo is most popularly known for the cold storage of cryptocurrencies, the firm’s crypto Debit Cards are also quite popular. Xapo is among the first and the biggest names to offer cryptocurrency-based financial services. However, Xapo’s debit card plans didn’t really work out well following Visa’s decision to end all card programs maintained by Wave Crest.