Banca Generali embraces the innovation of cryptocurrencies. One of the biggest financial group in Europe has in fact announced their entry into the capital of Conio Inc., a fintech active in cryptocurrency services.
In detail, Banca Generali participated as main investor in a capital increase of Conio approved for a total of 14 million dollars which also includes the entry of other shareholders. The cryptocurrency sector, explained in a note from Banca Generali, has reached an important dimension with a continuously growing trend.
At the end of November, the total capitalization of cryptocurrencies reached 580 billion dollars, of which Bitcoin constitutes about two thirds of the total. The daily exchanges worldwide are equal to 280 billion dollars with about 60 million users who trade crypto-currencies with "wallets". Bitcoin is currently trading around $ 19,300, not far from the all-time high of 19,500 it hit a couple of weeks ago.
For this reason Banca Generali has taken action offering its customers cryptocurrencies related services.
Conio?
Among wallet providers, Conio has developed an exclusive technology and patents aimed at guaranteeing safekeeping and counterparty risk reduction, while at the same time facilitating trading. The system includes a multi-signature digital currency custody system (on 3 security keys), which can be extended to any digital currency in the future.
Another partnership was announced two weeks ago with a platform, Nexi Open, which in fact extended the same opportunities offered by Conio services to all partner banks. Since the beginning of the year, Conio has seen a very strong acceleration, seeing the demand for Bitcoin in the app quadruple and reaching over 90,000 customers. Active since June 2015, in the second quarter of 2020 Conio had 13 employees but the team as a whole reaches 18 units.
All that glitters ain't gold
But how are Conio's accounts going? Like all start-ups, the first few years do not shine too brightly. In fact, the value of production at the end of 2019 was 431 thousand euros (a decrease compared to the 605 thousand euros of the previous year) and costs soared: the total production costs increased from 1.27 million euros in 2018 to 1, 39 million last year, which therefore recorded a loss of 751 thousand euros