Julius Baer, one of the largest and oldest financial institutions in Switzerland, has partnered with SEBA Crypto AG, “a pioneer in the banking industry” focused on bridging the gap between “traditional and the crypto worlds.” The partnership between the two entities involves working on a joint initiative to provide investors with a fully-regulated digital asset trading platform.

“Digital Assets” To Become “Legitimate, Sustainable” Asset Class

According to an announcement (published on February 26th), the Julius Baer Group will be working with SEBA to meet the growing demand from their clients – as they are looking to diversify their investment portfolios by allocating a certain amount of their invested capital into cryptoassets.

Based in Zug, Switzerland, SEBA intends “to build a FINMA (Swiss regulator) supervised and progressive technological bridge between the traditional and the crypto worlds.” At present, SEBA is petitioning the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) for a banking license.

Explaining how the partnership will allow investors to access a regulated crypto exchange, Peter Gerlach, the head of markets at Julius Baer, said:

At Julius Baer, we are convinced that digital assets will become a legitimate, sustainable asset class of an investor’s portfolio. The investment into SEBA as well as our strong partnership is proof of Julius Baer’s engagement in the area of digital assets and our dedication to make pioneering innovation available to the benefit of our clients.

In August 2018, Maerki Baumann, a leading Swiss private bank, had announced that it start accepting certain cryptocurrency-related transactions. Meanwhile, financial institutions in the US such as Falcon bank have also begun to support direct digital asset transfers – including payments made in bitcoin (BTC), bitcoin cash (BCH), ether (ETH), and litecoin (LTC).

Falcon Bank, Dukascopy To Offer Crypto-Related Services

On January 21st, Falcon bank revealed it would be solidifying “its first-mover position in blockchain banking” by adding to its list of crypto-related services – which it started offering in July 2017. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland’s capital, Falcon is a private banking institution with additional business offices based in Dubai, London, and Luxembourg.

On January 25th, Bitstamp, a Luxembourg-based crypto exchange, announced that it had partnered with Dukascopy, a major Swiss bank – in order to allow investors and traders to conduct bitcoin (BTC) related transactions. Launched August 2011 in Slovenia, Bitstamp will reportedly be facilitating bitcoin transfers on behalf of Dukascopy bank.

Dukascopy’s existing customers will be able to transfer bitcoin to their accounts, convert the cryptocurrency to USD, and then begin trading it on Switzerland’s foreign exchange (FX) markets.