Regulation
Swiss lenders aim to bridge cryptocurrency payments gap
After the collapse of two crypto-friendly American banks, European lenders appear to be filling the void.
As reported by Bloomberg News reported Tuesday (July 23), two Swiss banks — Amina Bank AND Bank of Sygnum — have recently launched real-time payment and settlement networks, filling the gap left by the closure of Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) and Signature Bank’s Signet platform.
According to the report, before their collapse in March last year, these banks had played a key role in providing liquidity to the cryptocurrency market.
SEN facilitated $117 billion in transfers in the quarter prior to Silvergate voluntarily liquidatedwhile Signet processed $275.5 billion before Signature was detected by US regulators.
According to Bloomberg, the demise of these networks has left Bitcoin liquidity in an even worse situation than it was after the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX in 2022.
Now, crypto players are still looking for alternatives. Amina and Sygnum, both active in recent weeks, hope to fill that void, offering a 24/7 network for instant transactions in both fiat and cryptocurrency, with no fees for transfers between network members.
The goal is to help cryptocurrency firms “execute trades and settle positions more quickly,” he said. The Kok Kee ChongCEO of Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange AsiaNextwhich has partnered with Sygnum Connect.
“This improves market liquidity, as traders can respond to market movements in real time without having to wait for settlement,” he added.
Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote an article earlier this month about the state of the cryptocurrency industry, which is struggling to gain wider acceptance.
That report pointed to research conducted by PYMNTS Intelligence that showed “that using cryptocurrencies for cross-border payments could be the winning use case that the industry was looking for.”
According to the research, cross-border blockchain-based solutions, particularly stablecoins, are increasingly being adopted by companies looking for a better way to transact and expand internationally. The Solana network processed $1.4 trillion in cross-border stablecoin payments last March alone, a sign of the technology’s scalability.
At the same time, the industry continues to argue that regulators such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) need to provide greater regulatory clarity.
“What we’re seeing, where it’s the UK, Japan, Singapore… even the European Union, more than two dozen countries have come together to provide a framework for the regulation of cryptocurrencies”, Ripple CEO Author: Brad Garlinghouse he said last week. “It’s frustrating that we as a country can’t get that regulatory framework in place. And instead, we have this never-ending lawsuit coming from the SEC that doesn’t really address the problem.”
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