Swissquote becomes the first bank to offer five cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, and Ripple

Gland, Switzerland, 18 December, 2017 – Swissquote today launched trading of four cryptocurrencies in addition to Bitcoin: Ether, Litecoin, Ripple and Bitcoin Cash. Swissquote has been offering Bitcoin trading already since July 2017. With now five virtual currencies, it is the most complete cryptocurrency trading offer by a bank, providing simple and safe trading to all customers.

Customers may invest in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether, Litecoin, or Ripple against the Euro or the US dollar through their Swissquote trading account, just as they would with any other currency, except without access to leverage. Because there is no leverage, there is no risk of losing more than the invested amount.

The offered crypto-currencies were chosen according to both client demand and available liquidity. The minimum cryptocurrency transaction is 5 USD or EUR, and the maximum is 500,000 USD or EUR. Fees are a percentage of the transaction amount, ranging from 0.5% to 1% depending on the amount invested.

Ether (ETH) was developed by the Ethereum Foundation in Switzerland and relies on the Ethereum blockchain and platform, which are used across a broad range of industries to build smart contracts and decentralized applications.

Bitcoin Cash (BCH) is a blockchain derived from the Bitcoin blockchain, following the split of Bitcoin (“hard fork”) in August 2017. Bitcoin Cash offers higher transaction capacities and a new governance model.

Litecoin (LTC) was created in October 2011 as a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency. While inspired by and technically nearly identical to Bitcoin, Litecoin has some minor differences: primarily a decreased block generation time (2.5 minutes rather than Bitcoin's 10 minutes), an increased maximum number of coins, a different hashing algorithm, and a slightly modified user interface.

Ripple (XRP), created in 2012, is the fourth largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation. It is both a payment network (RippleNet, competitor to systems like SWIFT) and a cryptocurrency.

Marc Bürki, CEO of Swissquote, said: “Our Bitcoin trading offer and certificate have been a big success and exceeded our expectations. We are expanding our offer to help investors diversify in cryptocurrencies, just like they do in traditional securities. Cryptocurrencies are increasingly popular, more quickly than anyone expected. By offering them on our platform, investing in cryptocurrencies becomes simpler, safer and accessible to all.”