Swiss bank Julius Baer enters crypto market

Julius Baer declared on February 26 that it would provide cryptocurrency services to all esteemed customers across the globe.

Switzerland’s third-largest bank partnered with SEBA Crypto AG, a Zug-based startup, to exploit their institutional-grade cryptoassets solution. The financial institution noted in a press release that the vital partnership with SEBA would enable them to provide its customers cryptocurrency storage, transactions as well as investment solutions.

The announcement also discloses that the banking giant has been a minority shareholder of Seba since last year.

SEBA aims at creating a financial market supervisory authority (FINMA) administered and liberal technological conduit between the traditional (fiat) and cryptoasset worlds.

The effort follows a significant integration of cryptocurrency assets by another giant financial institution to their platforms. Before Julius Baer, Switzerland-based Falcon Private Bank had also earlier declared that it would allow its customers to store, buy, sell and invest cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dash, Maker, Ripple, EOS, TRON, Bitcoin Cash, Stellar, Litecoin and many more.

Moreover, last week, other banking bulls JPMorgan and Mizuho Financial Group proclaimed that they would roll out their cryptocurrencies for remittance and internal payment settlement. JPMorgan was planning to launch JPM Coin. In August 2017, another giant in the banking sector known as Maerki Baumann Private Bank also declared that it would be allowing digital assets.

As Cointelegraph reported at the beginning of this month, Seba Crypto signed an agreement with Swiss mortgage bank Hypothekarbank Lenzburg AG to use its core banking system, Finstar.

Also in February, news broke that Switzerland’s principal stock exchange, SIX Swiss Exchange, will test blockchain integration for its forthcoming parallel digital trading platform, SDX, in the second half of this year.

Speaking on the partnership, Guido Buehler, chief executive officer of Seba, stated: “We are very proud to have Julius Baer as an investor. Seba will enable easy and safe access to the crypto world in a fully regulated environment.” Seba is expected to become one of just a few startups in the crypto space to close the regulatory gap between conventional and digital assets.

Switzerland has taken a progressive stance toward cryptocurrencies by legalizing their use and formalizing crypto transactions in a range of different contexts. But some crypto projects still struggle to open bank accounts, and cryptocurrency-focused bankers and investors still complain about a relative lack of regulatory clarity, as it remains unclear whether cryptocurrencies can be considered legal tender in certain contexts.