Switzerland has always been a nation that has had their act together and has never been afraid to embrace innovative technology.
They are extremely successful in a variety of different ways and they are often known as being smart thinkers when it comes to economics and business development. This is why they are so enthusiastic about blockchain technology and digital currencies. While many currencies are actively rallying against their implementation by scaremongering, Switzerland is using it as an opportunity to embrace them.
They are one of the crypto capitals of the world and the sector is only going from strength to strength in the country.
Over the years, they have been among the world leaders when it comes to the wealth management industry in particular, as they currently hold approximately $2 trillion or about 27% of the entire worldwide offshore wealth.
This is largely down to the authorities in Switzerland not standing down to the tax regulators of foreign countries, such as the United States IRS. They have since drawn back a lot of their privacy laws which has led them to slip somewhat when it comes to their competitiveness with others in the market. This is one of the reasons why they are embracing digital currencies.
The city of Zug has now been dubbed “Crypto Valley “and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) has implemented wide-ranging regulations that are complementary to the crypto sector and all of its related components. They aim to be at the forefront of the upcoming digital revolution, especially when it comes to the sector of initial coin offerings (ICOs).
An ICO is a way in which startups are now using crowdfunding and to raise money for their development by issuing their own digital token. Investors contribute funds to the company in exchange for a certain amount of their digital tokens.
This industry took off in 2017, with more than $5 billion raised through this means, a lot of which took place in Switzerland as it became an unofficial hub for ICOs. This sector looks to explode even further in 2018 as many established companies such as Kodak and the messaging app Telegram are holding their own ICOs.
For instance, Telegram is aiming to raise more than $1.2 billion through their ICO, which is by no means an unachievable target as they have already managed to raise more than $850 million through their private sale of their new GRAM token.
2017 saw Swiss-based ICOs raise about $550 million which represented over 14% of the worldwide ICO funding. One of the more controversial ICOs that was held in Switzerland was that of Tezos who managed to raise $232 million but subsequently faced a number of lawsuits from the SEC in the United States as they have been alleged to have defrauded and misled their investors.
Despite certain issues like this one, Switzerland is the place to be for many companies when they wish to start their ICO as the infrastructure and regulations have already been implemented and they are dealing with a country that is embracing the technology and not rallying against it.
