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Switzerland’s Crypto Broker AG Wins Securities House License From FINMA
Banks can tick a box and start trading with us, said CEO Rupertus Rothenhaeuser.
By Ian Allison
Updated May 9, 2023, 3:15 a.m. Published Feb 1, 2021, 5:00 a.m.
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Long in the making, Zurich’s Crypto Broker AG announced Monday it has been granted a securities house license by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
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Crypto Broker AG is part of a digital assets conglomerate that includes asset management and storage infrastructure services. The license means broadening the scope of its business and adding a rubber stamp when it comes to compliance, risk monitoring, liquidity reporting and so on, said Crypto Broker CEO Rupertus Rothenhaeuser.
“Some of our client banks have strict orders only to trade with regulated partners,” Rothenhaeuser said in an interview. “Now it’s just a case of calling them up to tick a box and they can start trading.”
Swiss momentum
Switzerland is probably the only place on the planet where regulations are actually keeping up with crypto infrastructure. That said, only a handful of crypto firms have been given FINMA’s blessing.
The securities license invites Crypto Broker AG to join other regulated Swiss crypto players like SEBA and Sygnum, and dive into the world of regulated security tokens (an area that just received further clarity in Switzerland thanks to the so-called “super DLT law”).
Read more: Swiss Crypto Bank SEBA Raises $22.5M to Fuel Growth
In terms of immediate practicalities, being a licensed broker allows the firm to hold funds in fiat currency for clients, which removes headaches around payments and processing, said Rothenhaeuser.
“On the one side, we are very much a modern, fast, DLT-based business. But on the other side, the payment cycle for cryptocurrency transactions reminds me sometimes of being back in the 1980s,” Rothenhaeuser said. “Being a securities license holder enables us to keep funds in the account rather than always keep the balance zero, so we can do much better straight through processing and also maximize our margins.”
Asked which big players are waiting in line to start trading with Crypto Broker AG, Rothenhaeuser politely declined to name names, but said some big players will appear in the news cycle shortly.
“We’ve been waiting a long time for this license. I expect to be on the phone solidly for the next five days,” he said.
Higit pang Para sa Iyo
KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
Ano ang dapat malaman:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Coinbase CEO says Big banks now view crypto as an ‘existential’ threat to their business
Brian Armstrong returns from World Economic Forum with message: traditional finance is taking crypto seriously
What to know:
- Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said a top executive at one of the world’s 10 largest banks told him crypto is now the bank’s “number one priority” and an “existential” issue.
- At Davos, Armstrong highlighted tokenization of assets and stablecoins as major themes, arguing they could broaden access to investments for billions while threatening to bypass traditional banks.
- He described the Trump administration as the most crypto-forward government globally, backing efforts like the CLARITY Act, and predicted that AI agents will increasingly use stablecoins for payments outside conventional banking rails.
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