Siemens Issues 300 Million-Euro Bond on the Blockchain
By Viktor Banh, Alexander Bechtel, and Manuel Klein The largest issuance of a crypto security in Germany to date was made possible through the collaboration of Siemens and key financial and technology service providers. On September 3, representatives from six major German financial institutions and technology service providers met virtually with Siemens’ treasury team to…
Ethereum ETFs are live and expectations are high
By Alexander Bechtel and Kasper Luyckx Crypto ETFs in the US are entering their second round: Nine Ethereum ETFs recently started trading. The expectations are high. August 29, 2023 marked a historic milestone for the crypto industry. The District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had wrongly…
What is the fair value of Bitcoin?
By Alexander Bechtel The debate about the fair value of Bitcoin is polarizing the financial world. While critics dismiss the cryptocurrency as a worthless object of speculation, the number of supporters is growing – also in traditional financial circles. The debate about the fair value of Bitcoin is often conducted with great passion and polarizes…
Tether: The most profitable business model in the world?
By Alexander Bechtel Tether, the company behind the largest dollar stablecoin USDT, earned more than most major European banks last year. Does this make the issuance of stablecoins one of the most profitable business models in the world, or is there a catch? Jean-Louis van der Velde is one of the most successful CEOs of…
The Bitcoin ETF – a milestone despite the lack of a price explosion
By Alexander Bechtel The US regulatory authority SEC approves a total of eleven Bitcoin ETF applications. A milestone for Bitcoin, but the hoped-for price explosion has failed to materialize. Here are the reasons. Last week, the financial markets experienced one of those moments that could go down in history. It started on Tuesday with a…
PayPal’s new stablecoin turns out to be extremely secure
By Alexander Bechtel With the introduction of the PayPal stablecoin, there are two different types of dollar payment methods at Paypal: the conventional, account-based dollar and the blockchain-based stablecoin. A comparison of the two variants reveals some interesting findings. In August, the payment service provider PayPal announced that it would be issuing a dollar stablecoin…
The digital euro is more than money
By Alexander Bechtel and Manuel Klein The ECB’s digital euro project is entering the next round. The success of the project also depends on the ECB’s willingness to use the private sector’s strengths. In mid-October, the European Central Bank (ECB) launched the next phase of its project to introduce the digital euro. During this so-called…
More efficient, faster, safer? – The vision of the tokenized economy
By Alexander Bechtel Blockchain technology and tokenization are expected to make financial services available around the clock and globally in the future. But before the vision of a tokenized economy can become reality, regulatory issues need to be clarified. Imagine the smartest minds from business and research coming together for a weekend on the boardroom…