Following its significant growth over the years, Bitcoin Suisse co-founder and CEO, Niklas Nikolajsen said the Swiss-based company may be going public in the near future.
Nikolajsen made this known in a recent Facebook post that instead of a direct listing, the company may go public via an Initial Public Offering (IPO) on a large stock exchange.
“It may very well be that BTCS [Bitcoin Suisse] is also to be listed on a large stock exchange in the not-to-distant future,” Nikolajsen said.
Not New
This is not the first time the company will be unveiling its plans for a public listing on a popular stock exchange.
Earlier last year, the company noted that it will be going public through an IPO, as it plans to have a competitive edge against other crypto-related firms that are based in Zug.
At the time, the only limitation to the move was Bitcoin Suisse’s inability to obtain a banking license from Swiss authorities and to secure at least 40 million CHF ($43.1 million) from investors.
Bitcoin Suisse’s Moves to Go Public
While Bitcoin Suisse is making significant moves to raise more capital, as disclosed in Nikolajsen’s Facebook post, which according to him is not clear whether the firm will be conducting a private placement, a Series B funding round, etc., the firm is yet to become a licensed bank.
Bitcoin Suisse filed for a licensing bank application in July 2019. However, the company withdrew its application in March this year, due to negative feedback about its weakness in money laundering defense mechanisms, which it received from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).
Nikolajsen said in the post that Bitcoin Suisse has spent the last three to four quarters working on consolidating and scaling core banking software solutions to formalize its process of dealing with money laundering and other compliance-related matters.
However, Nikolajsen is still confident of an IPO in the “not-too-distant future” due to the company’s tremendous growth over the years.
As highlighted by Bitcoin Suisse AG’s co-founder, the company, which currently has a staff strength of 275 full-time employees, will be adding another 100 to 130 workers to fill new positions by next year.
In addition, the company now holds over 10 billion CHF ($10.8 billion) worth of assets under management (AUM) has soared, with 130 million CHF ($140.2 million) in equity.
Going forward, Bitcoin Suisse said it will be moving into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized finance (DeFi), as well as partnering with firms from the banking and crypto space.
