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Swiss nuclear bunker stores bitcoin hoard

In the age of cyber attackers and digital fraud, where do you put your hard-earned bitcoins to keep them safe? In a nuclear bunker carved into the Swiss Alps it would seem.

A reporter from the US news portal Quartz shot this video of a bunker in canton Uri, run by Zug-based crypto firm Xapo.

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This might seem a bit overkill, but not if you consider the current global value of cryptocurrencies. That stands at around $172 billion (CHF171 billion) for the 100 top tokens, according to CoinMarketCap.comExternal link.

Bitcoin, the world’s first cryptocurrency, is by far the most successful. A single bitcoin will currently set you back nearly $6,000. All combined, the total value of bitcoins in circulation is just shy of $100 billion.

Xapo’s Uri bunker contains customer crypto assets worth “several million” according to the reporter.

Decommissioned Swiss nuclear bunkers, a relic from the Cold War, have been sold off for a variety of new uses – from tourism to data security.

Oct 2017

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SWI swissinfo.ch - a branch of Swiss Broadcasting Corporation SRG SSR