Company attributes
Other attributes
Bitcoin Suisse AG is a Swiss-regulated financial intermediary specializing in crypto-financial services, based in Zug, Switzerland. It was founded in 2013 by Niklas Nikolajsen. Bitcoin Suisse is led by CEO Arthur Vayloyan. It has been a regulated Swiss financial intermediary (SRO – VQF member) since 2014. Bitcoin Suisse AG offers prime brokerage, custody, collateralized lending, staking, tokenization, and other crypto-financial services for private, institutional, and corporate clients.
Bitcoin Suisse AG is Switzerland’s oldest professional company active in the field of crypto-financial services. Bitcoin Suisse AG has held a crucial position in the development of the “Crypto Valley,” a term that refers to the city of Zug due to its many crypto companies that establish locations there.
Bitcoin Suisse AG announced its plans to deploy the first ever Bitcoin ATM in Switzerland, but the release was abruptly cancelled on June 4, 2014 by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). On July 28, 2014, FINMA granted Bitcoin Suisse AG permission to release the ATM.
Bitcoin Suisse AG is regulated by the self-regulatory organization VQF (The Financial Services Standards Association). It was the first crypto company to join, in 2014. Bitcoin Suisse AG helped facilitate the first ever fiat-crypto crowdsale for the Ethereum Foundation in August 2014. Because of its early involvement, the company started Switzerland's first large crypto-mining facility in 2016. Bitcoin Suisse developed a payment gateway system for cryptocurrencies, which was deployed in July 2016 in the city of Zug. Zug was the first public entity in the world to accept Bitcoin as payment option.
In 2017, Bitcoin Suisse AG founded Swiss Crypto Vault AG, a company that specializes in secure custody of crypto assets. Swiss Crypto Vault AG is the technology provider for the custody offering of Bitcoin Suisse AG. In early 2017, Bitcoin Suisse AG assisted Melonport Foundation with its funding and popularized the Initial Coin Offering (ICO) model. Through 2017 Bitcoin Suisse helped raise over $1.1 Billion for different ICO-entities such as Omisego, Zilliqa, Bancor, and Tezos.
In November 2017, Dr. Arthur Vayloyan became Bitcoin Suisse's new CEO, replacing founder Niklas Nikolajsen who then became chairman. In December 2017, Bitcoin Suisse AG took over the main sponsorship for the Danish ice hockey club Rungsted Ishockey Klub, from Saxo Privatbank (subsidiary of Saxo Bank). This was the first time that a company specialized in crypto-financial services sponsored a professional Sports team, active in a premier league. The Rungsted Arena was renamed the Bitcoin Arena. In July 2018, Bitcoin Suisse AG founded Swiss Crypto Tokens AG, with the purpose of providing services related to the issuing of tokens.
In November 2018, Bitcoin Suisse AG joined as a founding member of the Swiss Blockchain Federation, in which Dr. Arthur Vayloyan holds a position in the Board. In December 2018, Bitcoin Suisse AG founded Bitcoin Suisse (Liechtenstein) AG. The company subsequently further increased its focus on its presence in Liechtenstein with the hiring of Mauro Casellini, now CEO of Bitcoin Suisse (Liechteinstein) AG, in April 2019. In July 2019, Bitcoin Suisse AG submitted an application to FINMA (Swiss Financial Markets Supervision Authority) for a Swiss banking license, according to the Swiss Banking Act, Art. 1a, combined with an application for a securities dealer‘s license, regulated under the Stock Exchange and Securities Trading Act (SESTA).
In July 2019, Bitcoin Suisse AG climbed the mountain Breithorn with almost seventy of its employees and conducted the "highest bitcoin trade ever recorded" at 4,164 meters above sea level on the summit of Breithorn.
In October 2019, Bitcoin Suisse AG facilitated the early sale of rights for Emaar EMR token sale, which will be part of the Emaar Properties tokenized referral and loyalty program. The EMR platform rewards users using the EMR utility token via an app for their loyalty and provides referral opportunities with redemption of rewards in Emaar’s real estate, hotels, e-commerce, and owned retail.
In November 2019, Bitcoin Suisse AG announced the signing of a letter of intent for a partnership with Worldline to offer cryptocurrency payment services to Swiss merchants and consumers, both in-store and in web-shops. The cooperation leveraged the existing nationwide payments infrastructure of SIX Payment Services, which has been part of Worldline since the end of 2018. In November 2019, Bitcoin Suisse Vault successfully completed a series of independent audits including ISAE 3402 reporting.
In December 2019, the company announced a cooperation in forming a working group with Lykke, SEBA Bank AG, and Sygnum AG to support the OpenVASP initiative with an open-source technical implementation of the proposed protocol. OpenVASP is an open protocol put forth in a white paper by David Riegelnig, Head Risk Management at Bitcoin Suisse AG, to implement FATF's travel rule for virtual assets.
On April 28, 2021, both Swiss Crypto Vault AG and Swiss Crypto Tokens were fully integrated under Bitcoin Suisse to maintain an inclusive company brand.
Following its November 2019 announcement about its letter of intent, Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse officially partnered to launch WL Crypto Payments in Switzerland on September 1, 2021. This created a new crypto payment solution for more than 85,000 Swiss merchants in the Worldline network. All Swiss merchants using the Worldline point-of-sale and e-commerce payment services can accept payment in Bitcoin and Ether just as easily as traditional payment methods.
On January 7, 2022, Bitcoin Suisse announced that Dirk Klee will become the new CEO on April 1, 2022.
Bitcoin Suisse AG offers clients trading and brokerage services of cryptocurrencies. The company is considered the largest Swiss broker for cryptocurrencies. Since 2017, Bitcoin Suisse AG has been cooperating with Falcon Private Bank to enable its clients to invest in crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin, and Bitcoin Cash. Falcon Private Bank was the first private bank in the world to offer clients direct exposure to Bitcoin. Through Bitcoin Suisse's service, Falcon Private Bank's clients gain access to crypto asset management solutions.
To store crypto assets, Bitcoin Suisse AG offers proprietary custody. The Bitcoin Suisse custody solution is ISAE 3402 audited and underwent several audits by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Grant Thornton, and Zühlke.
Bitcoin Suisse AG offers loans against crypto assets as collateral to increase cash flow and provide fiat liquidity against a pledge of crypto assets. According to the firm, loans in USD, EUR, GBP, and CHF are possible. Conversely, Bitcoin Suisse AG offers loans in BTC and ETH against a pledge of fiat assets.
Bitcoin Suisse assists ICO organizers and offers various services in this context. The company has been involved in numerous Initial Coin Offerings (ICO), including Bancor ($153 million), Status ($100 million) and Tezos ($206 million).
Bitcoin Suisse AG offers staking services for Tezos and Dash. On November 27, 2019, Bitcoin Suisse AG announced that Ethereum 2 (ETH2) custodial staking would soon be offered as soon as Ethereum 2 launched.
Bitcoin Suisse AG offers a payments solution which allows businesses to accept Bitcoin or Ether as payment. The city of Zug has been using this solution since July 2016 for various kinds of payments, including taxes.
In 2014 Bitcoin Suisse introduced the first series of physical Bitcoin-certificates. These paper wallets have the typical security features as physical money, such as holograms and serial numbers. In 2019, Bitcoin Suisse AG launched a new series of Crypto Certificates which are available for following currencies: Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin SV, Bitcoin Cash, Tezos, and CryptoFranc.
Bitcoin Suisse AG’s subsidiary Swiss Crypto Tokens AG issued the Swiss Franc stable coin (XCHF), which is backed by Swiss Francs. Investors can use XCHF as protection against volatility, while remaining in the crypto environment. The XCHF token is issued on the Ethereum blockchain and adheres to the ERC-20 standard.
