The ICON Foundation, creator of the ICON (ICX) project, has issued an official response to the news that South Korean tax authorities are investigating its technical partner, ICONLOOP. In a statement published on Monday, the chairman of the ICON Foundation, Min Kim, said that the ICON Foundation would not be affected by the investigation, noting that ICONLOOP is operated as a separate entity. The ICON Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Switzerland. In late 2017 it conducted an initial coin offering for the native coin of the ICON blockchain, ICX, raising over $42 million in the process. ICONLOOP is …

A report compiled by a Swiss venture capital company has revealed that the value of the largest fifty firms operating in the country’s famed Crypto Valley has increased by 680% since July 2020. The Top 50 Report, from Zug's Crypto Valley Venture Capital, or CV VC, found the valley’s 50 largest companies have increased in value from $37.5 billion in July 2020 to $254.9 billion as of February 2021. The report examined firms operating from the Swiss canton of Zug (AKA Crypto Valley) and found the number of blockchain firms in the region increased by 4.4% to 960 since July. …

Major European digital asset manager CoinShares is expanding its product portfolio with a new physically-backed Ether (ETH) exchange-traded product, or ETP. Called CoinShares Physical Ethereum (ETHE), the new investment product is launching with around $75 million in assets under management. Announcing the news Wednesday, CoinShares said that each unit of ETHE is backed with 0.03 ETH at launch. The news comes shortly after CoinShares launched its first physically backed Bitcoin (BTC) ETP, CoinShares Physical Bitcoin (BITC), in January. Similar to BITC, the new ETH ETP will be initially listed on SIX Swiss Exchange. The new product intends to provide investors …

21Shares, a Switzerland-based provider of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products, or ETPs, has recorded a 100% growth in assets under management over the past two weeks. The company announced Monday that it has passed the $1 billion mark in assets under management across its diversified 12 crypto-asset ETPs. 21Shares CEO Hany Rashwan said that the company has seen a meteoric rise in its crypto ETP products recently, doubling its AUM in less than two weeks. The company previously announced that 21Shares broke $500 million in AUM on Feb. 8. According to the announcement, the massive surge in 21Shares’ crypto ETP business is …

The Swiss canton of Zug now allows its residents to pay taxes in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). Bitcoin Suisse, a local crypto broker that enabled the new opportunity in partnership with the canton, announced Feb. 17 that the crypto payment option has rolled out this week. The administration of the canton of Zug placed an official memo for the new tax payment option on its official website, providing detailed video instructions for paying tax bills with crypto. “This step forward for crypto adoption has been enabled by the pioneering work from the Zug cantonal tax office using …

Data published by statistics firm Statista has revealed Nigeria is the leading country per capita for Bitcoin and cryptocurrency adoption, with nearly one in three survey respondents indicating they used or owned crypto assets in 2020. According to the survey, the pre-existing prevalence of mobile phone based peer-to-peer payments has led many Nigerians to explore cryptocurrency. Statista noted that many Nigeria responded they had recently installed crypto payment applications on their devices. The findings also note that many Nigerians are exploring crypto assets for international remittances. Adoption in the country shows no signs of slowing, with demand for crypto assets …

21Shares, a major provider of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products, or ETP, is launching the world’s first Polkadot (DOT) ETP. The new product, DOT ETP, will be listed on the Swiss SIX exchange on Feb. 4, 2021, 21Shares announced Tuesday. The new ETP comes shortly after Polkadot was added to 21Shares’ major ETP product Crypto Basket ETP (HODL) on Jan. 29. Tracking five major cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), HODL has removed Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and is now listing Polkadot as the second-largest constituent after Bitcoin. According to HODL ETP data from MVIS indices, Polkadot now accounts for about 27% …

On Monday, part one of the Swiss blockchain law covering company reforms went into effect. Back in September 2020, the country’s parliament passed an expanded regulatory framework for crypto and blockchain technology in the country. According to a Swissinfo report, the implementation of the new regulatory paradigm will help to improve Switzerland’s burgeoning crypto and blockchain scene. Indeed, industry stakeholders in the country praised the expanded financial and corporate reforms included in the amended legislation passed by parliament in September 2020. For Hans Kuhn, a board member at digital bank SEBA, the blockchain law establishes Switzerland’s place in the emerging …

Digital asset manager CoinShares is launching a Bitcoin exchange-traded product, or ETP, on the SIX Swiss Exchange. According to a report from Bloomberg today, the Bitcoin ETP will go live on Switzerland’s principal stock exchange tomorrow under the ticker symbol BITC. Each ETP will be physically backed by 0.001 Bitcoin (BTC) — worth roughly $36 at the time of publication. The custodian behind the ETP will be Komainu, the custodian established by CoinShares in partnership with Japanese bank Nomura Holdings and hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger during June 2020. “A lot of institutional clients have a very strong due-diligence process, and …

The world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, Norilsk Nickel, is pressing ahead with its digital technologies strategy. As of Jan. 18, Nornickel's Global Palladium Fund has launched exchange-traded commodities, or ETCs, for metals on the Deutsche Börse, which are custodied by TokenTrust AG and also make use of its distributed ledger platform, Atomyze. Nornickel's Global Palladium Fund intends to launch the ETCs on the London Stock Exchange "within a few days." An ETC, which is an instrument that is tradable like a stock or share, offers traders and investors exposure to an underlying commodity — in this case, …

Swiss SIX Exchange, Switzerland’s principal stock exchange, continues to expand its crypto products with a new Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded product, or ETP. On Jan. 13, SIX launched trading of the BTCetc Bitcoin ETP (BTCE), a new crypto ETP product issued by London-based investment firm ETC Group. The newly listed ETP tracks the price of Bitcoin, providing investors with a new way to get exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency. Each BTCE unit provides holders with a claim on a predefined amount of BTC. ETC Group specializes in building new digital asset-backed securities and is backed by shareholders like XTX Markets’s …

2020 has been a stellar year for the crypto economy, with more enterprises and institutions than ever before implementing the technology. Big announcements, such as PayPal’s decision to enable its users to buy and sell Bitcoin (BTC), have understandably dominated the headlines. However, pivotal regulatory developments across the globe have largely flown under the radar and arguably present even greater significance for crypto in the long term. Related: Will PayPal’s crypto integration bring crypto to the masses? Experts answer The importance of clear regulatory frameworks cannot be overstated, with patchy and insufficient legislation offering a major barrier to enterprises looking …