Tag Archives: Blockchain/Bitcoin

Swiss Bitcoin investment app Relai has partnered with global payments provider Checkout.com to enable its users to buy the cryptocurrency via Visa, Mastercard and Apple Pay in real time through its self-custodial wallet. The partnership with Checkout.com is expected to allow users to have constant access to instant liquidity while also ensuring that they have full say over what happens to their assets. Founded in 2020, Relai currently serves over 40 countries in...

Online trading platform Swissquote has launched a cryptocurrency exchange called SQX that aims to provide a more competitive and secure trading environment. Unlike other crypto exchanges, SQX says that it prides itself on being a centralised trading platform as it believes that currency markets function on the back of long-standing bilateral relationships. As such, Swissquote added that SQX’s new central order book, which sources and aggregates liquidity from...

The University of Zurich and ETH Zurich ranked third and 27th respectively on CoinDesk’s latest annual best universities for blockchain rankings. The rankings were made from a shortlist of 240 institutions around the world, calculated based on their scholarly, industrial and pedagogical impact on blockchain. Metrics that were taken into account included the institutions’ blockchain research publications, courses, degrees, conferences, clubs and industry partnerships...

Digital money app Revolut has been approved by the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to offer cryptocurrency products and services in the country. The company was previously providing crypto buying, selling and trading services under the the FCA’s temporary registration regime which allows service providers to continue operating while their applications were being reviewed. CoinDesk received confirmation from an FCA spokesperson that Revolut has...

Coinbase has secured regulatory approval from the Dutch central bank as a crypto service provider, allowing it to offer its full suite of retail, institutional, and ecosystem products to customers in the country. This makes Coinbase one of the first major global crypto exchanges to be approved by the De Nederlandsche Bank to operate in the country, alongside eToro and other platforms such as BitPay and Okcoin. Coinbase currently serves customers across almost 40...

Digital asset trading technology provider Portofino Technologies has raised over US$50 million in equity funding from Valar Ventures, Global Founders Capital and Coatue to scale its technology across the full crypto infrastructure value chain. The company, founded by former Citadel Securities executives Leonard Lancia and Alex Casimo, builds high-frequency trading (HFT) grade technology for institutions and Web3 projects that require digital asset liquidity....

Access to the metaverse is complex and expensive, which is why it is so far used almost exclusively by large companies. The Zurich and Verbier-based PR agency Rent a PR, which has been providing on-demand public relations and communications consulting for five years and has been accepting Bitcoin payments since 2019, is setting another milestone with cooperation and press conferences in the metaverse. The new service covers all the processes companies use to contact...

Crypto solutions provider 21.co has raised a US$25 million round led by Marshall Wace at a US$2 billion valuation, making it Switzerland’s largest crypto unicorn. The round, which included investors, such as Collab+Currency, Quiet Ventures, ETFS Capital and Valor Equity Partners was the company’s first raise in over two years. 21.co is a collection of companies, the largest of which is cryptocurrency exchange-traded products (ETPs) issuer 21Shares. The platform is...

SDX Web3 Services, the newly launched business unit from SIX Digital Exchange, is now live with its non-custodial Ethereum staking service. This new offering is a straightforward and secure way to launch new validators, generate yield from staking, and manage Ethereum validator nodes through a fully managed, API based infrastructure. The service is tailored to institutional clients who need to scale their Ethereum staking capabilities. SDX Web3 Services said that...

Hackers and cybercriminals are exploiting vulnerabilities found in cross-chain bridge protocols to siphon billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies out of wallets and smart contracts, a new report by blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis claims. A total of 13 separate cross-chain bridge hacks have been recorded so far, netting criminals about US$2 billion, according to the firm. Most of these attacks took place this year, showing that the trend is proliferating...