UBS has closed the first tokenized debt transaction for Asia Pacific investors, underlining its commitment to expand regional investment opportunities. UBS AG London branch issued USD 50 million in digital fixed rate security tokens (‘digital securities’) using blockchain technology to a series of high net worth and global family and institutional wealth investors across Hong Kong and Singapore. The US dollar-denominated instruments carry a tenor of 6 months and are...
Read More »Governments, International Bodies Ramp up Crypto Tax Regulations
Over the past year, governments and regulatory bodies from around the world have increased their focus on the taxation of the cryptocurrency industry, a trend that comes on the back of increasing investment, adoption and innovation in the space despite collapsing prices and high profile business failures, a new report by consulting firm PwC says. PwC’s 2022 Global Crypto Tax Report, released earlier this month, looks at the state of crypto taxation globally,...
Read More »New Swiss Fintech Startup Map Design for 2023
Together with their partners Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Swisscom and Clarafinds, eForesight has revised the Swiss Fintech Map and expanded the database as well as deleted some old and inactive players. The main business area categories contain now 130 Swiss Investment Management Fintechs, 106 Banking Infrastructure Fintechs, 48 Deposit&Lending Fintechs and 55 Payment Fintechs. On top of that, the fintechs in the main categories on the map...
Read More »BX Swiss: Test Trades in Swiss Francs via a Decentralized Public-Blockchain.
Together with major Swiss banks, the Swiss stock exchange BX Swiss is taking the financial market infrastructure for tokenized securities to the next level. In a test, trades on BX Swiss were settled for the first time directly in Swiss francs via a decentralized public-blockchain. The test was conducted as part of a proof of concept under the auspices of the Capital Markets Technology Association (CMTA). In the process, structured products were issued by the Swiss...
Read More »BX Swiss: Test Trades in Swiss Francs via a Decentralized Public-Blockchain.
Together with major Swiss banks, the Swiss stock exchange BX Swiss is taking the financial market infrastructure for tokenized securities to the next level. In a test, trades on BX Swiss were settled for the first time directly in Swiss francs via a decentralized public-blockchain. The test was conducted as part of a proof of concept under the auspices of the Capital Markets Technology Association (CMTA). In the process, structured products were issued by the Swiss...
Read More »Syz Crypto: Bank Syz Selected Taurus for Its New Digital Asset Offering
Bank Syz has collaborated with Taurus to launch its new digital asset offer Syz Crypto. It will cover the safekeeping and trading of digital assets to the Bank’s private, professional and institutional clients. Concretely, the Bank has integrated Taurus-PROTECT, a technology that allows the custody of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies, tokenized securities as well as NFTs and Taurus-EXPLORER for the connectivity to >15 blockchain protocols, including Bitcoin...
Read More »EIB and Goldman Sachs Issue First Euro-Denominated Digital Bond on a Private Blockchain
The European Investment Bank (EIB) — in collaboration with Goldman Sachs Bank Europe, Santander and Société Générale — launched Project Venus, their second euro-denominated digitally native bond issue and first using private blockchain technology. The €100 million, two-year bond was issued, recorded and settled using private blockchain-based technology, and represents the inaugural issuance on Goldman Sachs’ tokenisation platform – GS DAPTM. Banque de France and the...
Read More »The State of the German Blockchain Ecosystem
Despite a global venture capital (VC) pullback, shrinking valuations and public market turmoil, Germany’s blockchain VC funding market remained stable this year, with companies in the space securing a total of US$218 million across 20 deals year-to-date (YTD), just US$37 million short of 2021’s US$255 million, a new report by CV VC, a Swiss VC and private equity firm specialized in cryptocurrency and blockchain solutions, shows. The German Blockchain Report, released...
Read More »A.P. Moller – Maersk and IBM to Discontinue Blockchain Trade Platform Tradelens
A.P. Moller – Maersk and IBM announced the decision to withdraw the TradeLens offerings and discontinue the platform. Starting immediately, the TradeLens team is taking action to withdraw the offerings and discontinue the platform, and the intent is that the platform will go offline by end of quarter one, 2023. During this process all parties involved will ensure that customers are attended to without disruptions to their businesses. Maersk will continue its efforts...
Read More »Crypto Winter Wipes Out 72,000 Bitcoin Millionaires in 2022
Crypto comparison website Bitstacker conducted a study which found that there was a 70% drop in Bitcoin millionaires in November 2022 when compared to January 2022 due to the ongoing ‘crypto winter’. 72,000 Bitcoin holders were no longer millionaires due to the drop in BTC prices from US$46,208 at the start of 2022 to US$15,759 at the time of the study in November. Bitstacker also found that there was some 3,577 accounts holding over US$10 million in Bitcoin, while...
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