Roundup 28/09/2018 – Zebpay shuts down & more

Former UBS executives gain $104mn in funding round for crypto investment bank

The Seba bank will have its headquarter in Switzerland where the legislation and the business environment is favorable towards crypto projects. The CEO Guido Buehler, a former asset manager of UBS, announced that the bank is currently undergoing the licensing process in Switzerland. According to him, Seba expects to have completed this process by the end of next month. After that the bank will start operating. However, further expansion to Singapore and other European countries is already planned. The business model of Seba is to combine the services of an investment bank and a cryptocurrency exchange.

Zebpay shuts down due to banking freeze

Zebpay announced that it is shutting down its services for a yet unknown time. The judgment of the case of the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IMAI) that petitioned against the crypto ban in India is yet to come. However, the RBI succeeded so far in freezing banking services to several of its exchanges. So far many exchanges have found ways to circumvent these freezings. However, Zebpay announced today that it will not take new orders from 4pm on. The wallets and access to the crypto funds on Zebpay remain accessible.

We are stopping our exchange. At 4 PM today, we will cancel unexecuted orders & credit your coins to your Zebpay wallet. No new orders will be accepted. The Zebpay wallet will work even after the exchange stops. Read more: https://t.co/W8ygzPIYz1 pic.twitter.com/tPWCnyu7Yu — zebpay (@zebpay) September 28, 2018

US district judge rules cryptocurrencies are commodities

A federal district judge in the US has ruled that cryptocurrencies are a commodity. The question over the legal status of cryptocurrencies arose amidst the case of an investment fraud called My Bigcoin Pay Inc. The company fooled investors by suggesting similarities between Bitcoin and Bigcoin. Furthermore, the founder of Bigcoin Pay, Randall Crater, pretended that his cryptocurrency is value-backed. Crater collected over $6mn USD this way from investors. The Boston district judge Rya Zobel treated his fraud under the regulatory framework of a commodity. This judgment contradicts the judgment of a New York district judge earlier this month. The New York judge treated a similar case under the regulations of securities.