There’s no doubt about the fact that both the legal and regulatory landscape surrounding bitcoin and bitcoin ATMs are still, well, unclear.
And while most regulators have allowed for the launch of bitcoin businesses anyway, the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) is hitting the brakes on one company’s plans to launch bitcoin ATMs in Switzerland.
That company is Bitcoin Suisse AG, and Swiss regulators have asked them to halt their Zürich ATM plans for now, pending legal clarification.
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The company wrote today on Reddit:
It is correct that Bitcoin Suisse AG (BTCS) have been requested to suspend our launch of our Zürich based Bitcoin ATM by the Swiss regulatory authorities.
In corperation [sic] with the authorities – we have also progressively suspended all our other planned ATM launches for the time being.
The questions of legality surrounding these ATMs will likely need to be determined before they go online, but Bitcoin Suisse is hopeful they’ll be able to get back on track later this month.
For now, however, the company says they are going to be patient with the regulatory body, who ultimately has the final say as to whether or not these ATMs will be permitted.
The development is unusual, particularly because operators haven’t been given too much trouble in other countries that are even more suspicious of bitcoin.
Take China, for example. Despite all of the recent uncertainty regarding digital currency in the country, it is now home to several bitcoin ATMs.
Bitcoin Suisse declined to comment any further on the matter.