Swissquote Will Become a Crypto Depository

Swissquote, the leading provider of online financial and trading services in Europe, issued a press release announcing their conclusive decision to introduce a crypto custodial service by the end of the present month. This initiative was motivated by their desire to consolidate the progress of cryptocurrency implementation in their operations, which began with the launch of the Swissquote crypto trading platform. Since the time when the bank decided to tap into the realm of blockchain-based digital currencies, it enjoyed a significant increase in profits. Compared to the year 2018, the bank’s net revenue went up by 14%, the net profit increased by 13.8%. More than 110 thousand new accounts had been opened in Swissquote in the first half of 2018 alone.

Certainly, these figures weren’t obtained solely due to the incorporation of the crypto trading option, but it provided a significant boost nonetheless. Therefore, in order to expand the range of provided crypto-related services, the bank partnered with Crypto Storage AG, a Switzerland-based financial technology company, to develop a proprietary crypto custodial solution that relies on the use of state-of-the-art hardware security modules (HSM).

An ultra-secure cryptocurrency storage

Starting from March 21, Swissquote will be granting a possibility for its private and institutional customers to store their private keys, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets on the cutting-edge HSMs provided by Crypto Storage AG.

Each security module represents a part of an infrastructure developed by the Swiss fintech company for the purposes of providing financial intermediaries, such as the Swissquote bank, with a fully protected and customizable theft-proof physical computing devices, also known as the approval terminals.

Crypto Storage AG developers claim that HMSs provide an incomparably higher protection value than the conventional hardware wallets due to the use of enhanced security standards which imply that a device would sign on a transaction only after it receives a set of approvals from the intermediary, for instance, the Swissquote bank. The customer of the bank will be able to store all ERC-20 compliant tokens as well as an extensive range of other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, IOTA, Ripple, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Feathercoin, etc.

In the interview dedicated to the partnership deal with Swissqoute, Stijn Vander Straeten, the CEO of Crypto Storage AG, told that the Swiss National Bank, the country’s premier financial institution responsible for issuing the national currency - the Swiss francs (CHF), uses the very same hardware modules to ensure the security of their operations. Moreover, the HMS servers are situated in the Alps in the former military bunker that can even withstand the nuclear explosion.

Swissquote keeps in step with the times

In 2017, the Swiss bank became the first financial institution in Europe to introduce a legally compliant cryptocurrency trading solution. The platform was developed in partnership with Bitstamp, a Luxembourg-based crypto exchange that is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. The platform has been oriented primarily on the brokerage industry, allowing customers to exchange fiat for cryptocurrencies without having to transfer the funds to foreign accounts, but with the introduction of custody, the bank intends to attract more holders of digital assets, both individual and institutional.