Online trading services provider Swissquote has become the first bank offering regulated, simplified, and transparent access to five cryptocurrencies, allowing investors to diversify their portfolio. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, and Ripple are the digital currencies available on the platform, and chosen according to both client demand and available liquidity.
The Swiss-based online bank was already offering Bitcoin since July 2017, but a diversified portfolio with four extra cryptocurrencies enables investors to do much more in a simple and safe environment.
Through their Swissquote trading account, customers may invest in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, or Ripple against the Euro or the US dollar, just as they would with any other currency, except without access to leverage.
The minimum cryptocurrency transaction is 5 USD or EUR, and the maximum is 500,000
USD or EUR, with fees ranging from 0.5% to 1% of the transaction amount, depending on the amount invested.
Marc Bürki, Chief Executive Officer of Swissquote and Group Member of the ETH Board, said: “Our Bitcoin trading offer and certificate have been a big success and exceeded our expectations. We are expanding our offer to help investors diversify in cryptocurrencies, just like they do in traditional securities. Cryptocurrencies are increasingly popular, more quickly than anyone expected. By offering them on our platform, investing in cryptocurrencies becomes simpler, safer and accessible to all.”
Bitcoin (XBT) was the first digital currency, created in 2009 by Satoshi Nakamoto a month after the fall of Lehman Brothers. Its offer is limited to 21 million pieces and the market has seen a multiplication by 20 of its value since the beginning of the year (from $ 1,000 to $ 18,000). Anonymity, transparency, coupled with decentralization and ease of use, have attracted much demand to Bitcoin.
Ether (ETH) was developed by the Ethereum Foundation in Switzerland and relies on the Ethereum blockchain and platform, which are used across a broad range of industries to build smart contracts and decentralized applications.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a blockchain derived from the Bitcoin blockchain, following the split of
Bitcoin (“hard fork”) in August 2017. Bitcoin Cash offers higher transaction capacities and a new governance model.
Litecoin (LTC) was created in October 2011 as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. While inspired by and technically nearly identical to Bitcoin, Litecoin has some minor differences: primarily a decreased block generation time (2.5 minutes rather than Bitcoin’s 10 minutes), an increased maximum number of coins, a different hashing algorithm, and a slightly modified user interface.
Ripple (XRP), created in 2012, is the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. It is both a payment network (RippleNet, competitor to systems like SWIFT) and a cryptocurrency.
