Dukascopy Bank in Switzerland has launched its crypto token after a year of “intense legal, technological and emotional effort”.

Called Dukascoin (DUK+), Dr Andre Duka, CEO-CTO of Dukascopy Bank, says this is the “first payment coin issued for public use by a licensed and regulated bank, a Swiss bank at the least”.

In another “first”, the bank will offer an initial coin offering (ICO). The bank has picked an ERC-20 standard on the Ethereum blockchain and will do an airdrop for token distribution.

Issuance of new tokens will be free of charge and limited to new current accounts opening at Dukascopy, whereby each new client will get five Dukascoins for free and an equal amount will be granted to a referrer if any exists.

The bank itself will receive ten new coins from undistributed tokens every time a new account is created. These coins will be used to pay rewards and support liquidity.

Duka describes this project as “unique” because the Dukascoin will simultaneously reside in two environments – in the blockchain and in the books of a regulated bank.

With the crypto space beset by security issues and scam accusations, the bank says clients will be protected by the Swiss deposit insurance scheme covering CHF 100,000 ($100,250) protection against bankruptcy of the bank.

Users can do free and instant transfers of coins inside Dukascopy using the receiver’s phone number. At the same time all counterparties associated with the transfers are duly identified (not anonymous) as they become clients of a Swiss bank.

All clients can use standard banking services like payment cards, investments, and currency exchange.

Duka says the bank’s clients are “always free to move their coins outside of the bank, exiting the secure area of the regulated bank in favour of risks and freedom of the blockchain”.

To sell and buy Dukascoins, the bank has created an internal marketplace that is designed as a bulletin board that is linked to clients’ accounts at the bank.

It allows posting conditional orders (providing liquidity) or picking the desired orders from other participants (using liquidity). All transactions executed on the internal marketplace are secured by the bank.

The bank was founded in 2004 and has three subsidiaries. Two are brokerages – Dukascopy Europe (in Riga) and Dukascopy Japan (in Tokyo) – and the other is SIA Dukascopy Payments.

The bank’s HQ is in Geneva. It also has offices in Kiev, Moscow, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Dubai.