A war rages on Europe’s eastern rim, having already left thousands of people dead and injured and millions more displaced. Digital assets have become so woven into the global financial system that a major political and economic crisis like the one unfolding right now has crypto inevitably involved on all levels: individual, institutional and national. From Russian nationals turning their burning passports into nonfungible tokens (NFTs) to refugees using crypto as a last financial resort, millions of dollars worth of crypto donations flowing to Ukraine, and both digital asset platforms and the United States government weighing crypto sanctions against Russia, …

The global crypto derivatives and spot trading exchange FTX is expanding to Europe after receiving approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC). The new venture called FTX Europe would offer leading products of the company to the European clients via a licensed investment firm across the European economic area. The new European venture is headquartered in Switzerland along with a regional headquarters in Cyprus. Cyprus is seen as one of the reputed jurisdictions that offers a regulated medium for financial firms to access the European economic area. Thus, FTX would be able to offer its derivative crypto products …

Switzerland’s southern city of Lugano plans for many local businesses to accept some cryptocurrencies as ‘de facto’ legal tender as part of a partnership with Tether. Speaking at the city’s Plan B event on Thursday, Tether chief technical officer Paolo Ardoino said the firm had set up a 3 million-Swiss franc fund in collaboration with Lugano officials to encourage adoption of Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT) and the LVGA token for shops and businesses across the city. Ardoino said the project was aimed at attracting talent from the space to Lugano and making the city a major blockchain hub in Europe. …

Digital asset institution Sygnum Bank has announced a collaborative partnership with highly-accredited Swiss-born artistic sculptor, David Pflugi to issue 6,000 Art Security Tokens, or ASTs, via his new project, Victory Works. Orientated around the final of three international competitions: 2010 FIFA World Cup hosted by South Africa; 2014 FIFA World Cup hosted by Brazil; and the 2018 FIFA World Cup hosted by Russia, the artwork immortalizes the achievements of legendary players such as Oliver Kahn, Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, and Zinédine Zidane, among others, with the display of their written signature. With an estimated collective valuation of CHF 6 million, equivalent …

The city of Lugano, the economic capital of Italian-speaking southern Switzerland, is adopting cryptocurrencies for tax payments as part of a new collaboration with the provider of Tether (USDT) stablecoin. Tether Operations Limited, the blockchain-based platform that powers USDT, the world’s largest stablecoin by market capitalization, has signed a partnership with the administration of Lugano, according to a joint announcement on Thursday. Tether and the city administration have established a center of excellence for blockchain adoption with a goal to become a major European blockchain hub. The collaboration intends to demonstrate the real-world use cases of blockchain by applying it …

A group claiming to represent 35 former ConsenSys AG (CAG) employees has requested an audit under the Swiss Code of Obligations to investigate “serious irregularities” they allege occurred at the company during mid-2020. CAG, also known as Mesh, is the company behind top Ethereum-based wallet provider MetaMask and was founded by Joseph Lubin, who is also the co-founder of Ethereum. According to a press release, the group of employees who claim to represent around 50% of all known shareholders submitted the request to a Swiss Court on March 1. The group alleged that “fundamental intellectual property and subsidiaries were illegally …

After a banner year of 2021 for individual object sales through nonfungible tokens (NFTs), 2022 is poised to be the year of MetaFi. A recap of Beeple, Christie’s, Visa and endless aping-in celebrities hardly feels necessary, except to point out that we seem to be standing on (or perhaps have already crossed over) a fundamental precipice. While the rocket-propelled ascent of NFT prices will not continue forever, numerous voices have predicted that a mature tech stack for discovering, vetting, valuing, trading and protecting collections of digital assets will soon emerge, without a crash. But these optimistic takes may even be …

Christophe De Beukelaer is the first European politician to convert his entire salary to Bitcoin. He kicked off 2022 with the bold move, hoping to raise awareness about Bitcoin and alternative monetary models, financial education and to get people talking. De Beukelaer first got into Bitcoin and blockchain in 2017, and foresees a future in which Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies play a role as a “counterpart to the traditional financial world.” He gave an interview to Cointelegraph to delve deeper into his vision for Bitcoin and his motivations behind being paid in Bitcoin (BTC). When asked about how long it took …

Jimmy Chambrade and Aurore Galves Orjol, co-founders of Bitcoin-lyon, first heard about Bitcoin (BTC) in 2014. Around that time, their close friend and now business partner, Bruce, mined Bitcoin using his laptop. However, it took three years and a face-melting bull run before the pair could set aside the time to engage with the technology. Fast forward to 2017, and Chambrade and Galves Orjol had just returned from an around-the-world trip. Although ready to return to the world of work, they would rather avoid the traditional “nine-to-five” fiat lifestyle, or the “métro, boulot, dodo” (subway, work, sleep) routine as it’s …

Since 2019, Swiss financial crypto intermediaries have required proof of ownership of an external wallet's address for Bitcoin withdrawals and deposits to their customers' non-custodial wallets. One automated mechanism used for this is the Address Ownership Proof Protocol, or AOPP. The Trezor hardware wallet introduced AOPP singing as part of its latest January update last week, allowing users to generate signatures that conform to the AOPP standard used in certain jurisdictions. Today, Trezor announced that it will remove this protocol in the next Trezor Suite update "after careful consideration of recent feedback." Recent feedback refers to Reddit and Twitter users …

Andréa Maechler, a member of the governing board for the Swiss National Bank, or SNB, has reportedly altered her position on the central bank issuing a digital franc. According to a Tuesday report from Reuters journalist John Revill, Maechler said officials at the country’s central bank “believe the risks outweigh the benefits” when it comes to CBDCs. The governing board member said having the general public use a digital franc in day-to-day transactions would likely not help promote financial inclusion in Switzerland, where almost all the working population already have access to bank accounts. "This does not mean the SNB …

Switzerland took another step to clarify the roadmap for integrating central bank digital currencies (CBDC) into the current financial system. The Swiss National Bank (SNB), the country's central bank, completed the second phase of Project Helvetia with its partners by integrating wholesale CBDC into the existing back-office systems and processes of five banks, namely Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and UBS. The Bank for International Settlements and Swiss financial infrastructure service provider SIX joined as partners of SNB in Project Helvetia Phase II, which took place during the fourth quarter of 2021. Envisioned as a multi-phase investigation on …