Johann Niklaus Schneider-Ammann has spoken out in favor of the Swiss Confederation as a hub for cryptocurrencies and new types of blockchain technology. He said the country must seize this opportunity.
Schneider Ammann is a Swiss businessman and former politician who served as a Member of the Swiss Federal Council from 2010 to 2018. He was the President of Swiss Confederation in 2016 and headed the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research during his tenure as a Federal Councillor.
In February 2021 Switzerland's started implementing its new "blockchain law"
Switzerland is one of the first countries in the world to convert digital assets into national law, after implementing the first phase of the so-called "Blockchain Law" on the 1st February. Switzerland's legal framework for digital assets is now among the most advanced in the world. Company law reforms are also underway. From the beginning of August, the country will also improve its financial market infrastructure.
The "Blockchain Law" was passed unopposed by the House of Representatives in summer 2020, followed by a series of comprehensive financial and corporate law reforms passed by the Senate in September. Securities trading and corporate insolvency laws were to be updated.
The industry has certainly not been slow to react to the change
Swiss asset management company Crypto Finance announced also this February that its Crypto Broker subsidiary had received a securities firm license from Swiss financial regulator FINMA. The broker traded over $1 billion in assets in 2020. The license will allow the company to offer new products and services such as security token trading.
Sygnum and SEBA banks have already received their FINMA licenses in 2019 and also made announcements: SEBA Bank is issuing its Series B certificates of participation as token shares on the blockchain after raising $22 million in funding last year.
Meanwhile, Sygnum has created the first asset tokens issued under the new law. In collaboration with Fine Wine Capital, Sygnum has unveiled a number of premium investable wines on its Desygnate platform. Electric car company BAK Motors also plans to create digital shares through Sygnum.
Bitcoin Suisse, SDX, Taurus and Lykke have either already announced license applications or are rumored to be seeking them.
Legislative changes planned for August will create a new licensing category for distributed LEDGER technology (DLT) exchanges. This will enable a network of platforms on which the newly created digital securities can be traded. SDX plans to launch in the second quarter of this year.
SEBA Bank board member Hans Kuhn said, "With today's entry into force of the DLT law, Switzerland reaffirms its position as one of the most advanced and innovative legislative and regulatory jurisdictions in the world, which now fully supports the issuance of digital securities in the market on a native blockchain basis. This is an important step into the future to enable and ensure the innovation expected for security token issuance."
Swiss Confederation as a "Crypto Valley" instead of Silicon Valley?
In a guest article in today's Neue Zurcher Zeitung Schneider Ammann told that Switzerland should continue to play a leading role in blockchain technology. It has established itself as one of the world's leading blockchain nations in a very short time, and has one of the most advanced, clear regulatory frameworks, Schneider-Ammann continued.
"In global competition, Switzerland will be leaps and bounds ahead of others in jurisdiction.
More and more corporations also discovered the benefits of blockchain technology and, for example, mapped supply chains with it or used it for the digital storage of tangible assets," the former economics minister explained.
But the country should not rest on its laurels, Schneider-Ammann warned at the same time.
"Thirty years ago, the World Wide Web was developed at Cern near Geneva, but the triumphant advance of the Internet took place neither in Switzerland nor in Europe, but in Silicon Valley in the United States, so what is needed now is an awareness among the population and the business community that Crypto Valley is where the future is and where there is enormous potential for business."
Investments are now needed to ensure that the "Crypto Nation Switzerland" really emerges, he stressed.
The politicians have set the course for this in any case, Schneider-Ammann elaborated.
