Bitcoin Forum

Union Bank AG, a bank in Liechtenstein that offers corporate banking services mainly to companies based in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and the Middle East, has announced that it will be launching its own security tokens in alignment with Liechtenstein’s regulatory authority, FMA, and subsequently its cryptocurrency, “Union Bank payment coin,” which is fully backed by a fiat currency – the Swiss franc.

Fiat-Backed Crypto to Disrupt International Transactions

The virtual currency would reportedly be a competitor to other similar solutions like Stellar Lumens (XLM) and Ripple (XRP). Union Bank AG says it’s operating in a blockchain-friendly environment and that it has already been supporting initial coin offerings (ICOs) and clients to facilitate efficient and transparent conversions between crypto and fiat currencies.

“Our goal is to become the world’s first blockchain investment bank and to provide tangible solutions which help drive efficiencies, reduce cost base and open up new revenue opportunities for our customers and intermediaries alike,” M.H. Dastmaltchi, Chairman of the board of directors of the bank said in a statement. “Our fiat-backed Union Bank payment coin has the potential to disrupt the approach to international trade and international cross-border transactions,” he added.

See more - https://news.bitcoin.com/liechtenstein-bank-to-launch-its-own-cryptocurrency-backed-by-the-swiss-franc/

A token similar to XRP, better to see more of it. Another interesting news in the same article.
Liechtenstein will catch the look of many investors in the future  ;)

It might have some use cases, but I see no reason to invest in a centralised cryptocurrency. It would be as good as holding a traditional bank account. You may be subject to know your customer norms and your funds could be frozen. It still beats me why Ripple increased in value during the crypto bull run.

a question is why do we need second XRP?
one super centralised pseudo crypto is enough in my books
but it seems that the trend is obvious-Central banks are losing its grip on the countries
more and more countries are trying to get rid of the opressive stranglehold by the CB and issue their own cryptobased currencies
Venezuela,now Lichtenstein are test platforms, expect more to follow

Liechtenstein also is moving fast in terms of security tokens complying with the law. The just confirmed that the first real security token is launched under full approval of their financial market authority. This hopefully is a possibility to earn back some trust for serious projects after those many scams or shitty ideas.

https://www.naegele.law/archiv/prospekt-eines-ico-tge-eines-security-token-gebilligt

What's the point of having a centralized cryptocurrency? Why not just use cash at that point?

Oh joy. That's all we need in the cryptocurrency world, more centralized coins. At this point do people even know why Bitcoin was created in the first place???

I don't think that they're necessarily going to disrupt anything.

Perhaps this could be used as a safe haven asset of sorts for investors who want to keep their savings offshore in Swiss Francs, except in a way which they can access whenever they want online and transact with it in the form of tokens. That is the niche that I think they will likely be focusing on.

But even then, there are already cryptos like Tether which essentially stand behind the same principal of pegging it against a fiat currency, which seems to be the whole idea of this crypto. Only difference is that there is a whole suite of services that this crypto may offer to investors in the future, which is yet to see how practical it will truly be. But at the end of the day - this is centralised, and I don't see that much promise in the long run.