Xapo Bank

Last updated
Xapo Bank Limited
Xapo Bank Logo.svg
Headquarters
Gibraltar
Area servedWorldwide, excluding U.S.
Created by Wences Casares
Chairman Wences Casares
CEOSeamus Rocca
Industry Financial services
Products debit cards, Bitcoin account USD account
Services Asset protection, investment, interest payout
URL xapobank.com
LaunchedMarch 2014

Xapo Bank is a private bank headquartered in Gibraltar, which operates globally and is licensed as a virtual asset currency provider by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission. [1] [2] [3] As of 2023, the company offers stock market trading to its clients in Europe. [4] [2] [5] [6]

Contents

History

Xapo Bank's founding CEO and entrepreneur Wences Casares became interested in bitcoins because of the frequent financial fluctuations in his native Argentina. [7] [8] He has said that his family's finances were “devastated as the economy (in Argentina) rocketed from inflation to deflation to devaluation.” [8] Casares believes that digital currencies such as bitcoin “could solve the disjointed nature of our world economy.” [9]

In 2011, Casares bought his first bitcoins but couldn't find a way to store them, so he built a ‘vault’ for his own use. [5] Friends, and later financial institutions, soon asked Casares if they could store their bitcoins in his vault. [5] This became the foundation for Xapo, which was founded in late 2013 by Casares and COO Federico Murrone. [5] Xapo opened its products to the public in March 2014. [5] Prior to Xapo Bank, Casares founded and later sold online brokerage firm Patagon to Banco Santander for $750 million. [10] He also launched the first Internet provider in his home country of Argentina in 1994. [11]

Casares said Xapo Bank was founded with the aim of making the bitcoin currency more secure and accessible. [8] The company originally established to offer a bitcoin wallet service that combined cold storage vaults with a bitcoin-based debit card. The Xapo Wallet operates through a mobile app and online and includes the ability to transfer funds to and from the Xapo Vault. [8] In April 2014, Xapo introduced a debit card that links to the user's Xapo Wallet and functions like a standard debit card, except that it is backed by bitcoins instead of traditional currency. [6]

In May 2015 Xapo Bank moved its headquarters from Palo Alto, California to Zug, located in the Zurich metropolitan area of Switzerland. That year LifeLock, which acquired Lemon, a company led by eventual Xapo founder Casares, alleged in a suit that Casares developed the source code for Xapo using Lemon's resources. [12] [13] In July 2017, Xapo was granted a European e-money license in Gibraltar allowing it to provide electronic fiat money custodial and transfer services.

In July 2018 Xapo Bank was awarded a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services and with it formal approval to operate in the state of New York as a regulated Bitcoin business. The company relinquished its license in January 2022. [14]

In 2019, Coinbase acquired Xapo Bank's institutional custody business. [15]

As of 2023, Xapo Bank's app offered trading in blue chip stocks to its non-US members. [16]


Security

The Xapo Bank Vault consists of physical servers located around the globe that the company says is protected by biometric scanner access, 24-7 video surveillance, and armed guards. [5] [6] [9] Casares claims that Xapo “is the first bitcoin vault fully protected and insured against hacking and bankruptcy.” [5] The company guarantees members’ deposits up to the equivalent of €100,000. [17]

Investors

Xapo announced $20 million Series A funding in March 2014. [8] The funding round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Fortress Investment Group, Pantera Capital, and Ribbit Capital. [8] Benchmark partner Matt Cohler said the VC firm backed Xapo in part because Xapo “is led by one of the most important people in the bitcoin ecosystem, it’s insured and has investors from both Silicon Valley and Wall Street.” The company has raised a total of $40 million as of August 2014. [18]

See also

Related Research Articles

eToro is a social trading and multi-asset investment company that focuses on providing financial services. Its headquarters are located in Central Israel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Digital currency</span> Currency stored on electronic systems

Digital currency is any currency, money, or money-like asset that is primarily managed, stored or exchanged on digital computer systems, especially over the internet. Types of digital currencies include cryptocurrency, virtual currency and central bank digital currency. Digital currency may be recorded on a distributed database on the internet, a centralized electronic computer database owned by a company or bank, within digital files or even on a stored-value card.

A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may accept credit card payments, wire transfers or other forms of payment in exchange for digital currencies or cryptocurrencies. A cryptocurrency exchange can be a market maker that typically takes the bid–ask spreads as a transaction commission for its service or, as a matching platform, simply charges fees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wences Casares</span> Argentine businessman

Wenceslao Casares, also known as Wences Casares is an Argentinian entrepreneur and businessman in Silicon Valley–based fintech. He is the CEO of Xapo Bank, and founded Internet Argentina, Wanako Games, Patagon, Lemon Wallet, and Banco Lemon. Casares sits on the boards of PayPal, Diem, and Endeavor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryptocurrency</span> Digital currency not reliant on a central authority

A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or crypto is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.

Coinbase Global, Inc., branded Coinbase, is an American publicly traded company that operates a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Coinbase is a distributed company; all employees operate via remote work. It is the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States in terms of trading volume. The company was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam. In May 2020, Coinbase announced it would shut its San Francisco, California, headquarters and change operations to remote-first, part of a wave of several major tech companies closing headquarters in San Francisco in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lemon Wallet was a cloud-based digital wallet that allowed users to store digital copies of credit cards, debit cards, reward cards, as well as identification, and other card information. The service was released in July 2011 and the company is based in Palo Alto, California, United States. Wences Casares was the company's CEO.

Blockchain.com is a cryptocurrency financial services company. The company began as the first Bitcoin blockchain explorer in 2011 and later created a cryptocurrency wallet that accounted for 28% of bitcoin transactions between 2012 and 2020. It also operates a cryptocurrency exchange and provides institutional markets lending business and data, charts, and analytics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BitPay</span> Bitcoin payment service provider

BitPay is a cryptocurrency payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. BitPay provides crypto payment processing services for merchants.

Circle is a peer-to-peer payments technology company that now manages stablecoin USDC, a cryptocurrency the value of which is pegged to the U.S. dollar. It was founded by Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville in October 2013. Circle is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. USDC, the second largest stablecoin worldwide, is designed to hold at or near a stable price of $1. The majority of its stablecoin collateral is held in short-term U.S. government securities.

United States virtual currency law is financial regulation as applied to transactions in virtual currency in the U.S. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has regulated and may continue to regulate virtual currencies as commodities. The Securities and Exchange Commission also requires registration of any virtual currency traded in the U.S. if it is classified as a security and of any trading platform that meets its definition of an exchange.

A BitLicense is the common term used for a business license for virtual currency activities, issued by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS) under regulations designed for companies. The regulations are limited to activities involving the state of New York or a New York resident. People residing in, located in, having a place of business in, or conducting business in the State of New York count as New York Residents under these regulations. The license was introduced and designed by Benjamin Lawsky, New York's first Superintendent of Financial Services, in July 2014. Chartered entities do not require an explicit BitLicense, but may instead proceed with virtual currency activities via limited purpose trust charters approved by the NYDFS.

Kraken is a United States–based cryptocurrency exchange, founded in 2011. It was one of the first bitcoin exchanges to be listed on Bloomberg Terminal and was valued at US$3 billion in January 2024. The company has been the subject of several regulatory investigations since 2018, and has agreed to cumulative fines of over $30 million.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bitcoin Cash</span> Cryptocurrency that is a fork of bitcoin

Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is a fork of bitcoin. Launched in 2017, Bitcoin Cash is considered an altcoin or spin-off of bitcoin. In November 2018, Bitcoin Cash further split into two separate cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Armstrong (businessman)</span> Coinbase CEO and cryptocurrency billionaire

Brian Armstrong is an American business executive, billionaire, and investor who is CEO of cryptocurrency platform Coinbase. He received media attention for his policy of keeping the workplace free of political activism.

Bitso began as a global cryptocurrency exchange founded in Mexico. It was founded in 2014 by Ben Peters, Pablo Gonzalez and Daniel Vogel. Daniel Vogel is the current chief executive officer. Bitso was the first Latin American company and one of the few cryptocurrency platforms to be regulated by the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission under its Distributed Ledger Technology Framework.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solana (blockchain platform)</span> Public blockchain platform

Solana is a blockchain platform which uses a proof-of-stake mechanism to provide smart contract functionality. Its native cryptocurrency is SOL.

Bitpanda GmbH is an Austrian company headquartered in Vienna. Bitpanda provides a cryptocurrency exchange, commodities and securities trading, and ETFs via their website and mobile app. In 2021, Bitpanda achieved a valuation of over USD 4 billion. The company was the first Austrian start-up to meet the criteria for unicorn status.

References

  1. ↑ "Gibraltar's Xapo Bank sees opportunity in crypto winter". American Banker. Retrieved 29 August 2023.
  2. 1 2 "Xapo to Discontinue Service to US Customers in March". Yahoo! Finance. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  3. ↑ "GFSC - Gibraltar Financial Services Commission - Regulated Entities". www.fsc.gi. Retrieved 2022-10-10.
  4. ↑ "Xapo Bank Launches Stock Investment Feature for Non-US Members". The Fintech Times. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Sreeharsha, Vinod (14 March 2014). "Start-Up Seeks to Capitalize on Security Concerns for Bitcoins". The New York Times. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 Rusli, Evelyn M. (24 April 2014). "First Bitcoin Vaults, Now Xapo Debuts Debit Cards". Wall Street Journal. Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  7. ↑ "Xapo's journey is a happy outcome for one of crypto's most respected figures". Fortune. Retrieved 1 April 2024.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Swisher, Kara (13 March 2014). "Lemon Digital Wallet Founder Wences Casares Gets $20 Million in Funding for Bitcoin Startup Xapo". Re/Code. Re/Code. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  9. 1 2 Kim, Suzanne (14 March 2014). "Underground Vault Offers Bitcoin Protection With Armed Guards, Biometric Scanners". ABC News. ABC News. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  10. ↑ O'Neil, Lorena. "For Micky Malka, It's All About the Money". www.Ozy.com. Ozy. Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 15 October 2014.
  11. ↑ "Wences Casares: The Reluctant Serial Entrepreneur". OZY. 6 January 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  12. ↑ "LifeLock, Lemon founder locked in dueling lawsuits over bitcoin startup". www.bizjournals.com. Retrieved 2019-03-12.
  13. ↑ Martin Bryant (2014-05-17). "LifeLock Wallet Pulled from App Stores, User Data Deleted". Thenextweb.com. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  14. ↑ "NYDFS grants Xapo virtual currency license". Finextra Research. 2018-06-14. Retrieved 2021-02-23.
  15. ↑ "Balancing the ledger: Coinbase custody acquires Xapo's institutional business". Fortune. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
  16. ↑ "Crypto friendly Xapo Bank launches stocks investment feature". City AM. Retrieved 3 March 2024.
  17. ↑ "Xapo Bank enables bitcoin deposits via Lightning Network". The Block. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  18. ↑ Popper, Ben (2014-08-29). "Meet the man building the Fort Knox of bitcoin". The Verge. Retrieved 1 October 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.