Bitstamp, one of the popular European cryptocurrency exchange has made a collaboration with the major Swiss online bank Dukascopy, as per the announcement. Bitstamp has made this partnership in order to enable bank customers to fund their dollar-denominated accounts with BTC and withdraw funds in the cryptocurrency.
Bank clients will be able to send BTC to their accounts, convert them into U.S. dollars and then trade on the Swiss FX Marketplace. Also, customers can transfer funds back to the crypto wallets in the form of BTC. Bitstamp believes that the latest partnership will be able to reduce the gap between the crypto and traditional finance.
The bank said that the BTC sent by the clients to it will always be converted to USD. Bitstamp is liable for exchanging fiat funds to BTC and back to the bank. “The proceeds of the BTC/USD conversion are credited in USD to the crypto-fundable client account,” the bank described, adding:
“In case of withdrawal, the bank debits an amount of USD from the crypto-fundable client account, converts such amount into BTC at a current rate and transfers the bitcoins to the client wallet linked to his account.”
Dukascopy Bank has been in the crypto space for quite some time. It already offers a Contract For Difference (CFD) "trading on the price movements of cryptocurrencies, its derivatives or value estimations," as per the website. Presently, only CFDs on BTC and ETH are available, both having a 33% margin requirement and a leverage ratio of 1:3.
Dukascopy Bank's website further says that customers with opened CFD positions don't own the particular assets and "price of cryptocurrency CFD varies considerably over different crypto exchanges." The bank also said that its CFD prices on cryptocurrencies are unique and is dependent on its ability to hedge Dukascopy positions with external counterparts.
Earlier in October 2018, Bitstamp was purchased by Belgium-based investment firm NXMH, which is basically owned by the South Korean media conglomerate NXC Corp. After a few days of the acquisition, Bitstamp declared that it is moving towards "global expansion."
Swiss Bank lately launched support for direct transfers and storage of select cryptocurrencies. Currently, the bank supports four main coins which include BTC, BCH, ETH and LTC.
One of the studies made by the Swiss crypto investment firm CV VC has claimed that the number of blockchain-related firms in Switzerland and Liechtenstein is increasing continuously despite the poor performance of the crypto market.
