Can an Alpine Bitcoin Bunker Become Your Next Swiss Bank Account?

The Swiss Crypto Vault venture, founded by Niklas Nikolajsen, crypto broker and Philipp Vonmoos, a former UBS Group AG investment banker, targets ultra-high net worth individuals and institutional investors with their offering of “deep underground storage”, unique and outstanding encryption, multi-signing authorization processes and many more security features.

Swiss Crypto Vault is a joint venture between Swiss Gold Safe AG and Bitcoin Suisse, which are partnering with Falcon, an Abu Dhabi-owned, Swiss-based private bank.

Launching on Wednesday, clients will be able to use the storage space, which will process various cryptocurrencies including Ether and Litecoin, Bitcoin Suisse.

Bitcoin Suisse, which was founded by Nikolajsen, moved its own stock of digital assets and those of its users to the bunker.

Nikolajsen stated that it is becoming harder for many banks to refuse its key clients services related to crypto investments and crypto financial services. The purpose of the bunker is to help banks satisfy their customers' needs in this particular niche.  

He clarified that at the moment Bitcoin Suisse has 10 lenders as clients and more than 10,000 relationships in total.

The popularity and increased numbers of hacker thefts and risk of natural catastrophes (for example floods) remind the crypto community that even if cryptocurrencies exist only in cyberspace, they need high-level physical protection.

Xapo is a competitor to the Swiss Crypto Vault and is currently guarding nearly $10 billion of Bitcoin.

The Bitcoin fort of Swiss Crypto Vault is located in one of the Cold War bunkers built to resist a nuclear attack. Only a section of the bunker is used, as the venture has a backup facility elsewhere.  The cryptocurrency keys are stored offline, which prevents the risks of hacking and exposing clients to high vulnerabilities. PricewaterhouseCoopers is engaged to perform regular security system checks,  and a notary must be present at the location, even if the venture’s own executives want to open the vault.

If institutional investors are provided with greater comfort and security, Bitcoin’s price might be going on the rise and recover from its 55% decrease.

Vonmoos added that the development of the crypto community will be able to go to the next level if additional institutions enter the crypto space. They will be comfortable to enter if they are sure there is a secure way of storing their assets and private keys.