Category Archive: 6c) Crypto Currencies English

Swiss banks queuing up to jump on blockchain train

Digital bank Swissquote is expanding its crypto business by delving into the new world of blockchain-compliant digital assets. It appears that they are not alone: several high street banks also plan to launch “tokenization” services.

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Delta Exchange Closes US$5 Million Raise From Blockchain Valley Ventures Among Others

Delta Exchange, a UK-based institutional-grade crypto derivatives exchange, announced that it has closed a US$ 5 million token raise from existing and new investors where Swiss venture firm Blockchain Valley Ventures (BVV) backed and advised the former on their token raise.

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PayPal Allows American Customers to Use Cryptocurrencies for Purchases

PayPal announced the launch of Checkout with Crypto, where US customers will be able to choose to check out with crypto seamlessly. Building on the ability to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency with PayPal, customers using Checkout with Crypto can check out safely and easily, converting cryptocurrency holdings to fiat currency, with certainty of value and no additional transaction fees.

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Bitcoin Billionaires Beware – Tom Wheelwright and Robert Kiyosaki on Bitcoin taxes

If you sold, mined, or traded cryptocurrencies in 2020, then this episode is for you! Tom Wheelwright, Rich Dad Advisor on Taxes, warns listeners as they prepare for filing taxes this year, “Anytime you use or trade your virtual currency, that’s a taxable event.”

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Austrian Crypto Broker Bitpanda Secures Unicorn Status With $170 Million Funding

Bitpanda, an Austrian digital investment platform dealing with cryptocurrency, announced that it has closed it Series B funding round with an investment of $170 million and attained unicorn status with a valuation of $1.2 billion. The funding round was led by Valar Ventures with participation from partners of DST Global. Bitpanda had also previously secured $52 million during its Series A from Valar Ventures. The Series B was signed last week and...

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God, Bitcoin, and Asymmetric Bets

Blaise Pascal was a brilliant mathematician, inventor of the calculating machine, and pioneer of probabilistic theory during the 17th century. His philosophical works were published posthumously under the title of Pensées.

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Digital Asset Adoption Gains Momentum With US$26 Billion in Bitcoin Transactions

Bitcoin’s recent price surge has accelerated institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies leading to institutional investor pouring an estimated US$26 billion into bitcoin over the past eight months, an analysis by SNGLR Group shows.

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Switzerland and Estonia Among Europe’s Most Advanced Blockchain Ecosystems

In Europe, Switzerland, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus have the most advanced and mature blockchain ecosystems with well-developed startup scenes and high levels of regulatory maturity, a paper by the EU Blockchain Observatory and Forum says.

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Switzerland’s Blockchain Fintech Industry in 2021

Switzerland is home to 130 startups that are applying blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) to finance use cases, new data from Swisscom show. Most of these companies (48%) operate in the banking infrastructure vertical, followed by investment management (24%), and payments (21%).

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French blockchain firms offer tracing for Swiss watches

The market for second-hand luxury watches is booming. But for the average consumer, it is not easy to tell a fake from the genuine article and determine the real value of a particular timepiece. Certificates based on blockchain technology could provide more transparency.

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Dollar Consolidates Ahead of Thanksgiving Holiday

The divergence in developed markets yield curves continues; the dollar is consolidating ahead of the US holiday. FOMC minutes will be released; weekly jobless claims data will be released a day early; October personal income and spending will be reported; Banco de Mexico releases its quarterly inflation report.

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Blockchain trading venue challenges stock exchange dominance

Digital assets bank Sygnum says it will open up new sources of funding for small companies by creating and trading shares on the blockchain. Its new trading facility will also target venture capital, real estate and the arts and collectibles market.

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Swiss law reforms make crypto respectable

Bitcoin used to be something of a dirty word, associated with crime and money laundering. Switzerland has now amended its legal code to welcome cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology into the mainstream.

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How crypto mining tried, but failed, to gain a Swiss toehold

There was a time when any Tom, Dick or Harry could create (or “mine”) bitcoin with a modified PC. Now only warehouses packed full of specialised computing gear stand any real chance. The bones of defunct crypto mines litter the Swiss Alps.

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Swiss consortium launches bitcoin on Tezos blockchain

A consortium of Swiss cryptocurrency companies has incorporated bitcoin onto the Tezos blockchain. The move brings Tezos, which has based its foundation in Switzerland, a step closer to rival blockchain Ethereum. Launched in 2018, the Tezos blockchain was designed to play host to a new generation of decentralised finance, business and social projects.

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Swiss regulator cracks down on fraudulent crypto activities

Switzerland’s financial regulator brought charges against eight “initial coin offering” (ICO) blockchain projects for breaching anti-money laundering rules last year. ICOs raise money from the public by selling digital tokens that promise to hold future value for the consumer.

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Swiss parliament assumes control of Crypto probe

The Swiss parliament has insisted that it will take control of and merge the ongoing investigations into the Crypto spying affair that has rocked the Alpine nation. On Wednesday, members of the parliamentary control delegation decided to immediately take over the direction of investigation launched by the Federal Council (executive branch) on February 11.

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Crypto investigator still needs permission to view files

The man tasked with investigating the Crypto spying affair for the Swiss government doesn’t have direct access to all the relevant documents. Niklaus Oberholzer, formerly a federal judge, must ask the federal authorities whenever he wants to access sensitive files.

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Ex-cabinet members had knowledge of Crypto business dealings, say papers

The Crypto leaks scandal continues to shake the Swiss political establishment. The Sunday papers report that some former federal ministers and parliamentarians had ties with the Swiss firm that helped the CIA and German intelligence listen to conversations of foreign powers for decades.

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Investigation opened into Swiss encryption firm linked to CIA

The Swiss government has opened an investigation into a decades-old spying affair involving Swiss firm Crypto, following reports by Swiss public broadcaster SRF, German broadcaster ZDF and The Washington Post. The government confirmed on Tuesday that it had opened an investigation into the reports that Crypto, a Zug-based communications encryption firm, was secretly used by the CIA and West German intelligence services for decades.

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