Swiss FINMA Approved The First Cryptocurrency Investment Fund

The first fund investing in crypto has officially been approved by the Swiss FINMA regulator as we are reading more about it in our latest cryptocurrency news today.

The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority or Swiss FINMA, gave a green light for the Crypto Market Index Fund to be the first crypto investment vehicle to operate within the country with proper licensing. According to Reuters reports, the Crypto Market Index Fund will be available to be qualified investors only. The Swiss financial watchdog said that it will fall under the “other funds or alternative investments” category which is associated with higher risks.

In regards to these risks, FINMA explained that the approval came after examining specific requirements and included the addition of assets in the fund that have been with a bigger trading volume. The statement reads:

“In order to facilitate serious innovation, FINMA applies the existing provisions of financial market laws in a consistently technology-neutral way.”

The institution added that only established counterparties and platforms under the regulatory scope could process the investments. The EU country is among the leaders in terms of crypto adoption and its regulator approved a few similar digital-asset-oriented products over the past years. Companies like Coinshaares and 21Shares already launched multiple exchange-traded products on the SIX exchange while last year, Swiss’s canton of Zug enabled locals to pay their taxes in BTC and ETH.

As recently reported, The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority- FINMA will require local digital asset providers to follow new rules and prevent criminals from using crypto. The regulator also turned its sight towards BTC ATMs as they believe that the drug dealers often use these machines. As per the reports, Switzerland considers imposing AML rules that will supervise local crypto providers as an attempt to clamp down on all illicit money laundering transactions. Swiss platforms and brokers that are dealing with the digital asses will have to enhance their monitoring efforts and see if bad actors are using crypto. The watchdog believes that the initaitive is necessary, stressing that criminals use the asset class to fund terroristic acts. FINMA also turned its attention towards BTC automated teller machines and according to the regulator, the drug dealers use these ATMs as payment systems. It is worth noting that Switzerland is a relatively small country but it has 130 BTC ATMs and it is the sixth place in the world for countries with the most machines.