SIX Swiss Exchange announced that it was establishing a dedicated cryptocurrency industry called SIX Digital Exchange (SDX). However, this project is temporary on hold due to the declining market.
This SIX Swiss Exchange is the largest stock exchange in Switzerland and the third largest in all of Europe. Last September, the exchange received permission to set up this cryptocurrency service for regulated institutions.
This service would consist of a custody service, a staking service for banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions.
Lots of interest in cryptocurrency in Switzerland
Over the past year, several traditional financial institutions have shown interest in the cryptocurrency sector. In addition to the SIX Swiss Exchange, we also saw Arab Bank Switzerland, BBVA bank and Swissquote, the country’s largest online bank, take their first steps in the sector.
The exchange was keen to take advantage of the generally wealthy residents of the country by making cryptocurrency a part of its average portfolio, however, due to current market conditions, the exchange has chosen to postpone the launch of the crypto service.
Harsh market conditions in the cryptocurrency sector
The cryptocurrency market has fallen in value enormously in recent weeks. More than $1 trillion evaporated as bitcoin fell towards $20,000 and eventually beyond. At the time of writing, the price of bitcoin (BTC) is at $19,500 with a bottom of $17,600.
MicroStrategy, the largest institutional investor in bitcoin, has a loss on paper of $1.26 billion due to this decline.
In addition, the value of Tesla’s bitcoin stock has also fallen sharply. They can record a loss on paper of $320 million. Another notable investor in bitcoin is the country of El Salvador who are currently down 50% and it looks like we haven’t seen the end of the decline yet.
