Switzerland’s largest online bank, Swissquote, is planning to launch a cryptocurrency exchange early next year to meet clients’ surging demand for digital assets.
The bank’s sales manager Jan De Schepper shared the company’s plans to roll out a crypto trading platform during an interview with Finews.asia.
“We want to enable more trading in various cryptocurrencies on the platform,” he said, adding that the company’s compliance and customer service teams were almost overrun by the recent crypto rush.
Founded in 2000, Swissquote Group Holding SA is the largest online banking institution in Switzerland. The company has been a long-term admirer of the crypto industry, and it has been seeking ways to engage and offer digital asset services to its clients.
Back in 2018, Swissquote announced that its clients could participate in Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) through its platform picking LakeDiamond (LKD) as its first ICO issuer. The move made the organization the first bank in the world to offer such services.
Swissquote aims to use its upcoming crypto exchange to dive deeper into the industry and become the leading Swiss provider of digital assets. It plans to expand its crypto offering by enabling staking services and adding more crypto assets, including stablecoins.
Meanwhile, as demand for cryptocurrencies continues to surge, banks are looking for ways to enter the industry to meet their clients’ needs.
To better understand digital assets and seek the best ways to offer these services, larger banks are getting in the game of hiring talents, as reports show a 615% surge in crypto-related job postings in the US.
In October, CryptoPotato reported that US Bank, the fifth-largest banking organization in the States, announced a crypto service in a bid to meet the growing demand for such products from its clients.
Following the announcement, the bank noted that it will partner with the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to allow fund managers to store private keys to their Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Litecoin (LTC).