Roubini unimpressed with Crypto Nation Switzerland
Switzerland’s flourishing cryptocurrency and blockchain sector continued its expansion last year. But this did not stop renowned US economist Nouriel Roubini berating a gathering of blockchain enthusiasts at a World Economic Forum side event, telling them: “It’s all fluff, just total fluff.”
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When not covering fintech, cryptocurrencies, blockchain, banks and trade, swissinfo.ch's business correspondent can be found playing cricket on various grounds in Switzerland - including the frozen lake of St Moritz.
Roubini made his comments at the CV Summit in Davos on Thursday, following the presentation of a study that showed the number of Swiss blockchain companies and jobs increasing for a third year.
The self-styled “Crypto Nation” recorded 842 ventures in Switzerland and Liechtenstein by the end of 2019. This included the Libra stablecoin project that arrived with much fanfare last summer before running into a wall of potentially fatal protest from governments and regulators.
This compares to 750 entities in 2018, a figure that includes start-ups, assorted services such as legal and consultancy firms plus academic institutions. The number of jobs supported by the industry grew from 3,300 to 4,400, states a surveyExternal link from business incubator CV VC and PwC Strategy&.
The growth rate has slowed down from the heady period of 2017, running into the first half of 2018. The number of start-up casualties is also starting to mount.
However, many other projects have firmly established themselves in Switzerland, prompting CV VC CEO Mathias Ruch to proclaim that the sector “has become more stable and mature.” This was further evidenced by the Swiss financial regulator awarding the first two banking licenses to new banks specialising in digital assets.
Ruch also highlighted increasing interest in Swiss blockchain know-how from large Chinese banks, government agencies and investors in recent months.
But Roubini, also speaking at the CV Summit, was unimpressed by talk of transforming finance through blockchain. Referring to fintechs such as Alipay, M-PESA, Venmo, PayPal and Square, Roubini said: “There is a revolution in payment services in the financial system, billions of people doing billions of transactions every day. This has zero to do with crypto and blockchain. That’s the reality.”
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The uptick in company registrations in the blockchain industry bucked the trend of slightly fewer start-ups setting up shop across all sectors in Switzerland last year. Switzerland has built a reputation as a global hub for the blockchain industry. Much activity is based around the Crypto Valley of canton Zug and in the Zurich financial…
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The Swiss blockchain sector continues to boom: over 600 companies and institutions are now located in the ‘Crypto Nation’ and Liechtenstein.
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