CoinShares Acquires Additional Stake in Switzerland-Based FlowBank
Nicholas Otieno Mar 15, 2022 09:40
CoinShares has further increased its strategic investment into Swiss-based online FlowBank to extend its market reach.
CoinShares, a digital asset management firm based in the UK, announced that getting approval from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority, has acquired an additional 20.8% stake in FlowBank, a fully licensed online bank headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland.
Following the firm’s October 2021 strategic investment of a 9.02% stake in FlowBank, the latest investment brings CoinShares overall holding to 29.3%.
CoinShares strategic investment in FlowBank brings together the two trusted companies in their respective markets and indicates industry transformation, which will benefit investors in Switzerland and beyond. Following the acquisition, Jean-Marie Mognetti, the CEO of CoinShares, will join FlowBank’s board of directors to advise on FlowBank’s digital asset strategy and international development.
CoinShares built Galata, a proprietary technology platform, which acts as a gateway to the digital asset ecosystem and connects centralized finance (CeFi) platforms to digital asset protocols and markets. FlowBank will leverage CoinShares’ Galata powered technology to be able to take advantage of more advanced features and provide exposure to a variety of digital assets to its customers.
Jean-Marie Mognetti, CEO of CoinShares, talked about the investment and said: “After remarkable financial results in 2021, we continue to build an ambitious plan to make CoinShares an essential and leading player in the digital asset space. We are very excited to increase our participation in FlowBank, a key innovative player in Switzerland powered by a unique technology, allowing them to leverage our technology and digital asset expertise. This is aligned with our strategic plan to make CoinShares an integrated digital asset fintech company.”
Meanwhile, Charles Henri Sabet, the Chief Executive Officer at FlowBank, also commented about the partnership and stated: “We are delighted that CoinShares continues to recognize and support FlowBank’s great potential and accomplishments and has decided to increase its stake in our bank. Today, FlowBank’s clients can invest in CoinShares’ crypto on CFDs and gain exposure to digital currencies in this way. This is only the beginning. We look forward to collaborating further with CoinShares in the coming months and taking our product offering to the next level together.”
Bridging the Gap between Traditional Finance and Decentralized Finance
Established in 2015, London-based CoinShares continues to serve as a digital asset management firm that offers a variety of financial products and services to professional investors.
Early last year, CoinShares launched a new physically-backed ETP, CoinShares Physical Bitcoin (Ticker: BITC), amid a fierce rally for the world’s largest digital currency. The investment company launched the CoinShares Physical Bitcoin product and listed it under the SIX Swiss Exchange to provide institutional investors with passive exposure to Bitcoin and the convenience of an exchange-traded product.
Since 2014, CoinShares has provided an effective bridge between the cryptocurrency ecosystem and traditional finance through its suite of ETPs (Exchange Traded Products). The physical Bitcoin product represents the next stage of such evolution. CoinShares continues developing investment vehicles that eliminate the boundaries prohibiting institutions from actively investing in what they believe to be the future of finance.
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