Yacuna Closes Cryptocurrency Trading Platform, Swiss Tawipay Signs Partnership with IOM

In case you missed these two news: London-based Yacuna will close its cryptocurrency trading platform next month, and Swiss Tawipay has partnered with the International Organization for Migration to work toward the lowering of global remittances costs.

Yacuna to Close Its Cryptocurrency Trading Platform

London-based cryptocurrency trading platform Yacuna has announced that it will close on November 25, inviting users with remaining funds to withdraw their money before that date.

Without citing any further explanation, the company wrote in an announcement:

“Bitcoin is a wonderful technology and we are proud that we have developed one of the first European exchanges for virtual currency. But everything comes to an end. […] We hope that you will continue to be an integral part of the Bitcoin community and support us in our future projects.”

Yacuna said it will manually batch and process withdrawals of all currencies, a process that may take some time it said.

Tawipay Signs Deal with the International Organization for Migration

Tawipay, a Swiss remittances services comparison website, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The collaboration marks the debut of a public-private partnership to contribute to the lowering of remittances transaction costs globally and to the monitoring of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target 10.c.

SDG target 10.c aims to reduce the costs of migrant remittances to less than 3% by 2030, as well as eliminate remittance corridors with costs higher than 5%.

“This partnership represents what we want to promote as public-private partnership: an alliance that builds on the complementarities of public and private actors and that benefits migrants in the first place,” Ambassador Laura Thompson said in a statement.

François Briod, CEO of TawiPay, said that the partnership is a step forward in his company’s mission to bring transparency and more competition to the remittances market.

“Migrants work hard to send money back home to their relatives, but face hefty charges,” Biord said. “What is needed is information that is not only reliable and up-to-date, but also readily accessible, both for migrants and institutions working to lower the cost of remittances.”

IOM is an intergovernmental organization that works “to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration, to promote international cooperation on migration issues, to assist in the search for practical solutions to migration problems and to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants in need, be they refugees, displaced persons or other uprooted people.”

Cover image credit: IOM Deputy Director General, Laura Thompson with François and Pascal Briod, TawiPay, IOM.