Swiss crypto bank SEBA goes live after FINMA greenlight

Quick Take

  • Switzerland-based cryptocurrency bank SEBA is now fully operational
  • SEBA CEO Guido Buhler said clients can get into digital assets “without having to sacrifice security”
  • The bank is currently supporting five coins – BTC, ETH, XLM, LTC and ETC 
  • SEBA has plans to extend services to select foreign jurisdictions in December 

Switzerland-based cryptocurrency bank SEBA is now fully operational.

In a statement shared with The Block on Tuesday, SEBA Bank AG (formerly SEBA Crypto AG) said that Swiss clients, including corporates, asset managers and professional private investors, can now open an account with it. The bank has plans to onboard clients from selected foreign jurisdictions in December.  

SEBA was set up in April 2018 and received a banking license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in August of this year. “We are proud to have founded a bank within 18 months, raised CHF 100 million [$100.5 million] in capital from investors and obtained a banking and securities dealer license from FINMA,” said SEBA CEO Guido Buhler.

He added that the bank’s customers should be able to take full advantage of digital assets “without having to sacrifice security.”

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SEBA said secure custody of digital assets is its "critical" success factor and that customers can invest in both traditional and digital assets, store them, trade them and take out loans – via an integrated interface.

Wallets and cards

The bank is offering SEBAwallet app, e-banking, and SEBA card facilities, through which customers can manage five cryptocurrencies - bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), Stellar (XLM), litecoin (LTC) and ether classic (ETC), and convert them into traditional currencies and vice versa online, per the announcement.

SEBA cards, on the other hand, can be used at 42 million points of sale worldwide. “The SEBA Card represents an important step towards the mass introduction of cryptocurrencies,” said Buhler.

SEBA is also providing corporate accounts to Swiss blockchain companies and their employees, per the statement. "They will be able to have accounts and custody for fiat and digital assets and tokenize assets according to their needs. This is a new and an extremely important step for the Blockchain and digital asset economy," Buhler told The Block.

Last August, SEBA rival Sygnum also got a banking license in Switzerland and went live in September. Just last month, Sygnum also received a capital markets services license in Singapore, allowing it to provide asset management services in the Asian country. The firm will initially offer a multi-manager fund, which will allocate investments across a portfolio of managers that tap into the global digital asset opportunity using “different and uncorrelated” investment strategies.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Yogita Khatri is a senior reporter at The Block, covering all things crypto. As one of the earliest team members, Yogita has played a pivotal role in breaking numerous stories, exclusives and scoops. With nearly 3,000 articles under her belt, Yogita holds the records as The Block's most-published and most-read author of all time. Prior to joining The Block, Yogita worked at crypto publication CoinDesk and The Economic Times, where she wrote on personal finance. To contact her, email: [email protected]. For her latest work, follow her on X @Yogita_Khatri5.