The company, registered in the Cayman Islands but run out of the US, said that regulatory issues were behind the delays, with Swiss authorities unsure as to how to classify Xapo’s activities. “The regulatory environment for Bitcoin in Switzerland is very advanced, perhaps the best in the world,” CEO Wences Casares previously told local news publication Finanz Und Wirtschaft. As 2016 draws to a close, however, a sense of irony is beginning to creep in. In a piece on Xapo, the Neure Zuercher Zeitung (NZZ) notes it is Switzerland’s arcane banking laws – dating from 1934 – that are giving the company an unwanted identity crisis in the eyes of regulators. As of now, it reports, financial authorities – specifically Swiss regulator Finma – are still unsure whether the services Xapo offers make it, in fact, a bank. Read more: bitcoinist.com
