Issue 6 2019

Acquisition International - Issue 6 2019 83 Nov18357 Cryptic Expertise Since 2017, the Canton of Zug has evolved into a crypto valley. As a Zug-based commercial law firm, Reichlin Hess provides insight and advice surrounding Blockchain, crypto currencies and other promising Blockchain applications. eichlin Hess is a law firm based in the city of Zug, Switzerland. Founded in 1981, the firm is now well-established with and enthusiastic and dedicated team of lawyers who provide all kinds of legal advice, tax advice, and notarial services, as well as advocacy in litigation and other kinds of legal proceedings. The firm creates and assists in structuring corporations and group companies, relocations, medium-sized mergersandacquisitions, joint ventures, corporate restructurings and reorganisations, corporate governance and compliance, authorisations, financing, private equity and venture capital undertakings, private placements, medium-sized initial public offerings, management buy-outs and buy-ins, corporate succession, and commercial and other agreements of strategic importance to its clients. In this context, Reichlin Hess advises on capital market law as well as national and international tax law. It also focuses on the areas of employment law, real estate, construction and environmental law, competition law, matrimonial property and inheritance law, and intellectual property law. Rechlin Hess’s lawyers have in-depth knowledge in their practice areas and are poised to represent their interests with commitment and passion. Due to the firm’s substantial experience in advising clients in domestic and international contexts, and due to its rich diversity of talents, its lawyers are particularly versatile and adaptive- yet ready to embrace change in the dynamic and demanding environment of the international commercial and financial industry. One of the experts in crypto or blockchain related legal matters at Reichlin Hess is Christian Maeder, who was made a partner at the firm on 1 January 2019. Christian Maeder’s practice focuses on all aspects of domestic and international tax law, such as corporate restructurings. Christian Maeder also supports numerous companies in the blockchain/crypto industry regarding Swiss regulatory compliance and anti-money laundering regulations and he has assisted many ICO’s or STO’s in Switzerland from a regulatory, legal and tax perspective Besides this, Christian Maeder also serves in the board of international non-profit organisations and supports their development projects with legal and tax services. The blockchain technology is a continuously extendable chain of digital data blocks that are filled with information and linked to each other by means of cryptographic procedures. This technology is the basis of all crypto currencies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum and it is considered to be one of the biggest innovations in computer science. Based in the Canton of Zug, the so-called ‘Crypto Valley’, Reichlin Hess supports clients with all kind of blockchain, crypto or FinTech projects from a Swiss regulatory, legal and tax perspective. R Switzerland is one of the leading ICO countries in the world by recent studies. In Zug, hundreds of crypto or blockchain related businesses have been established in recent years. With its established ecosystem, Zug is generally the preferred place of business for ICO projects. The Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authoritiy (FINMA) recognises the innovative potential of distributed ledger/blockchain technology and it generally welcomes and supports all efforts to develop and implement blockchain solutions in the Swiss financial centre. ICO’s are currently not governed by any specific regulations in Switzerland. However, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) repeatedly stated that Swiss legislation on financial markets is principle-based, such as the principle of technology neutrality. Due to the underlying purpose and specific characteristics of ICOs, various links to current regulatory law may exist depending on the structure of the services provided. With the support of experts in crypto and AML regulations, Reichlin Hess successfully registered a new crypto exchange with a self- regulating organisation in Zug, Switzerland. The new crypto exchange will offer exchanges from crypto currencies (such as BTC or ETH) to fiat currencies and vice versa. Depending on the country of residence of the client either the online or video identification will be performed. The new crypto exchange will also be fully compliant with Swiss data protection laws and the EU GDPR.

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