Julius Baer, the eminent Swiss private banking group, have formed a partnership with Seba Crypto, where they plan to provide their users access to digital asset services. In a press release, Julius Baer stated that the plan is to “extend its service range providing storage, transaction and investment solutions for digital assets”.
The partnership will come into effect as soon as Seba are granted a banking and securities licence from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). Seba state that their ambition is to become “one of the world’s first licensed and supervised crypto banks”.
Peter Gerlach, Head Markets at Julius Baer and proposed member to the Board of Directors of Seba, said: “At Julius Baer, we are convinced that digital assets will become a legitimate sustainable asset class of an investor’s portfolio. The investment into SEBA as well as our strong partnership are proof of Julius Baer’s engagement in the area of digital assets and our dedication to make pioneering innovation available to the benefit of our clients.”
Following In Their Rival’s Footsteps
The collaboration follows a similar move by rival, Falcon Private Bank who offered Bitcoin asset management to private clients in 2017, giving them an easy process for investing wealth created from trading in crypto. They began accepting direct transfers of some cryptocurrencies from both private and institutional clients last month.
Seba has raised $100 million in funding and plans to launch its own cryptocurrency via an initial coin offering in the third quarter this year. It aims to go live during the second quarter of this year. Julius Baer made a minority investment into the startup last year.
Guido Buehler, Seba CEO, said: “We are very proud to have Julius Baer as an investor. Seba will enable easy and safe access to the crypto world in a fully regulated environment. The cooperation between Seba and Julius Baer will undoubtedly create value for the mutual benefit and to the clients”.
