The very first crypto fund in Switzerland has been successful in securing approval from the Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). This marks the beginning of a new chapter in Swiss history because there was no crypto fund that was ever available to Swiss consumers until now. The managing company which is going to manage the fund is “Crypto Finance” while the funds will be held by a Swiss bank namely “Seba Bank”.
At last a beginning of a new chapter has been initiated in Switzerland which involves the present-day norm known as “crypto”.
FINMA, which is the federal body regulating financials in the Swiss, has made an announcement on 29th September 2021. In this announcement, FINMA has announced that it has granted approval to a company intending to establish a crypto fund. Before such an announcement, there were no prior permissions ever given by FINMA under the respective laws. FINMA commented that a crypto investment fund has been sanctioned for the first time in Switzerland. The basic and sole purpose of the fund would be to allow Swiss investors to invest in virtual assets.
It was further elaborated by FINMA that however, the approval is still subject to certain conditions that are to be met. For instance, restrictions have been imposed on the crypto funds which can allow investment opportunities in major cryptocurrencies with exhaustive trade volumes only. This means that only those cryptocurrencies can seek investment in the fund which are widely popular and massively traded on daily basis. The second condition is that in the case of foreign investments, they must come from only those channels which belong to FATF countries.
FINMA’s approval of developing a crypto fund was secured by a Crypto Finance AG which too made the announcement of this fact. The permitted company will be exclusively administered by Pvb Pernet von Ballmoos, which is also a fund management company. While the investment funds will be handed over by Crypto Finance to Seba Bank for their security and safe-keeping. It was announced by Crypto Finance that the firm is honored to become Switzerland’s first crypto asset manager.
As regards the funds, it has been told by Crypto Finance that the fund will be accessible to only “qualified investors”. As per Crypto Finance, the “qualified investors” include investors such as professional investors, asset managers, banks, pension funds, etc.
One day prior to granting permission to Crypto Finance, Seba Bank too had made an announcement. The bank informed that it had successfully obtained a license for hosting crypto custodial services. The bank further said that Seba Bank has become Switzerland’s first licensed bank having been authorized to facilitate the services.
Later on FINMA was appreciated by local and international crypto communities which endorsed FINMA’s openness to innovation.
