Switzerland is on the cusp of having its first homegrown crypto unicorn firm. finews.com hunts the value of four-year-old «crypto nation»-building.

With Seba tapping $110 million in fresh funding, the value of Switzerland’s crypto players is taking shape: Bitcoin Suisse is worth 400 million Swiss francs ($432 million) after raising money last year. Sygnum, the other licensed bank in Switzerland, is worth $800 million, it said last week.

The clearest indication yet of how much Switzerland’s burgeoning crypto scene is worth is from Crypto Finance AG, which sold a majority to Germany’s Deutsche Boerse last year. The makes the Zurich-based provider worth up to $400 million.

«Nation»-Building

The upstarts are putting pressure on traditional wealth managers because clients are demanding access to digital assets. That is fueling the value of a four-year effort to build a «crypto nation,» buttressed by favorable tax and other legal structures like foundations. 

Hands-on Swiss government support and a rapidly-adapting regulatory approach including a raft of new crypto-aimed rules have underscored the push. 

Seba is coy on valuation, but a back-of-the-envelope calculation puts it at roughly the same as Sygnum, as it raised around the same from investors in three rounds as its rival and has booked some trading income (though has spent more copiously). This values «crypto nation» at at least $2.4 billion, according to a finews.com estimate.

Smoke And Mirrors?

The rub is almost none of entities have published profit-and-loss statements. How much of the valuation of digital asset start-ups is backed up by real business and how much is smoke and mirrors?

Most players want to minimize their dilution. Detractors note that valuations are based on belief in the underlying crypto business model, not cash flow.

Big Profits, No License

Bitcoin Suisse is the exception: a banking license may elude the crypto broker, but it remains wildly profitable. Co-founder Niklas Nikolajsen said last month Bitcoin Suisse is on its way to nearly doubling net profit last year of 24.1 million francs.

The company, which put itself at «several hundred million» last week, can only benefit from a dual cooperation-competition strategy outlined by incoming CEO Dirk Klee in an interview with finews.com last week.

Foreigners Stoke Bidding War

Financial details on the other players are sketchier: Crypto Finance’s price was fueled by a bidding war, according to several people familiar with the situation. The valuations are still a pittance compared to where the real money is: trading venues. Coinbase’s $86 billion listing last year. Kraken is reportedly seeking a $10 billion valuation.

Switzerland’s hidden value is also in its wider ecosystem, the digital asset lobby argues. Zug now counts ten unicorns, Crypto Valley Venture Capital notes, including Ethereum, a project it values at $157.2 billion.

Tightly-Knit Swiss Web

Two years on since their regulatory backing, Sygnum and Seba remain a rare example of licensed banks. Others include Silvergate, a U.S. lender which is now partnering with Facebook’s Diem project, and Signature, a New York-based bank that is crypto-friendly.

The scant data points underscore the difficulty in ascertaining the value of Swiss crypto, in an industry that is inherently international anyway. Switzerland’s advantage is a tightly-knit web of players like Incore, which serves as a gateway for traditional banks into digital assets.