ZURICH: In other countries, politicians express concern about the cryptocurrency craze, citing worries about security, regulation, volatility and a speculative bubble. Not in Switzerland. The affluent Alpine country wanted “to be the crypto-nation”, Johann Schneider-Ammann, economics minister, told journalists as he arrived for a private crypto finance conference in St Moritz last week. Of the 10 biggest proposed initial coin offerings — by which start-ups raise funds by selling tokens — four have used Switzerland as a base, according to PwC. The burgeoning ICO industry is burnishing Switzerland’s business friendly reputation and sometimes buccaneering spirit — a reputation spoilt by the past decade’s scandals over the help its traditional private banks gave to wealthy clients in evading tax. But it has created a dilemma for Swiss politicians and regulators: just how far should they go in encouraging a digital “wild west”? As Mr Schneider-Ammann spoke in St Moritz, the government in Bern announced an ICO working group to consider possible actions by regulators and lawmakers. Separately, the Finma financial regulator is expected soon to give an update on how it is policing ICOs.Please use the sharing tools found via the email icon at the top of articles.
They want Switzerland to be the place to make it happen but they don’t want to be seen as the ‘wild west’. It is Swiss pragmatism,” says Martin Eckert, partner at MME, a Swiss law firm. Digital pioneers say Switzerland emerged as an ICO hub because it has a cluster of rich investors and technology specialists. The small canton of Zug, near Zurich, has unofficially become “Crypto Valley”. The Crypto Valley industry association says it receives five to ten inquiries a day from start-ups around the world interested in how to do a Swiss ICO. ICOs build on the Blockchain distributed ledger technology behind bitcoin. As well as fuelling the fantasies of speculative investors, they threaten to disrupt the venture capital industry by slashing the cost of fundraising and opening up the possibility of investing in start ups to anyone with a smartphone.
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