Cryptocurrency Trading Launched By Liechtenstein’s Bank Frick

Bank Frick, a Liechtenstein-based family bank, has announced it is now offering “direct investment” and cold storage of five cryptocurrencies.

Bank Frick said that cryptocurrency trading will take place within the fully regulated framework of its processes and is aimed at professional market participants and financial intermediaries. The first batch of cryptocurrencies to be available for trading will include bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ripple and ether. Cryptocurrencies will be held in cold storage wallets, which are physically separated from the Internet and therefore cannot be externally hacked.

“Financial intermediaries, such as asset managers and fiduciaries, can make use of our new offering to successfully differentiate themselves in the market and add value for their clients,” said Chief Client Officer Hubert Büchel. “With these direct investments, intermediaries and their clients can easily get to know a new, exciting universe and diversify their portfolios. Investments in cryptocurrencies are highly speculative and so they should form only a small part of a portfolio.”

Bank Frick will take steps to track the sources of investment capital, complying with anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) rules. Clients can only invest in cryptocurrencies once they have been fully identified and verified. The verification and identification process also involves checking the origin of the money used to invest in them.

Büchel said Bank Frick’s capability to support and implement new business models while operating within regulatory frameworks has put its services in demand across Europe.

“Our services are in demand from companies across the whole of Europe,” said Büchel. “This is because they know that we can offer them reliable support in implementing their business models with cryptocurrencies and blockchains in line with the existing regulatory framework. We aim to place crypto-banking on at least the same level of quality as traditional banking.”

In September 2017, the bank launched a cryptocurrency basket tracker based on bitcoin and ether. The increase in value since then has been 238 percent (price as of January 27). The highest point was reached on January 10 with 367 percent.

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