Sygnia Asset Management, a major investment firm in South Africa, has
announced that it will launch a cryptocurrency exchange later this
year.
Regional business news outlet BusinessTech reports that the firm, which currently has R180.6 billion ($14.5
billion) in assets under management (AUM), plans to open the exchange —
called SygniaCoin — during the third quarter of this year.
“We aim to launch SygniaCoin, a cryptocurrency exchange, in the third
quarter of 2018,” said Sygnia CEO Magda Wierzycka. “The cryptocurrency
market is evolving at a rapid pace internationally and domestically, and
is attracting both domestic and international flows.”
She continued:
“With its fintech focus, Sygnia is well-positioned to
become the first major financial services institution to embrace
cryptocurrencies and to offer investors a secure trading and execution
platform backed by an international infrastructure, well-designed
custody and integration with standard savings products.”
Wierzycka said that SygniaCoin will base its operational and security policies on the BitLicense framework adopted by New York state’s Department of Financial Services
(NYDFS), which is considered to be one of the most rigorous regulatory
regimes governing cryptocurrency exchanges. This, she explained, will
enable it to better serve institutional investors.
In addition to trading, Sygnia will offer traders the ability to hold
cryptocurrencies in their Sygnia accounts alongside their other
investments. The company will also create a dedicated fund that will
invest in a range of cryptocurrencies on behalf of investors.
As CCN reported,
South Africa’s central bank has yet to outline a clear policy on
cryptocurrencies, which it refers to as “cyber-tokens.”
However, Wierzycka said that she expects the government to establish
more robust guidelines in the future.
Interest in cryptocurrencies among South Africans has boomed in
recent months, even as the market has experienced a general downtrend.
A recent survey found that 47 percent of South Africans who have not yet invested in cryptocurrencies plan to
do so in the future, either directly or through proxy investments in
companies that operate cryptocurrency mining farms.
This article comes from ccn.com immediately removed if infringement.
