Online trading in Europe was a novelty in the late 1990s — most retail investors still called their broker or visited a bank branch to place a trade. Swissquote was founded in Geneva in 1996 and was among the first companies in Europe to build an online trading platform for retail investors, making it possible to trade Swiss and international equities from a web browser at a time when that was genuinely revolutionary. The company went public on the Swiss Stock Exchange in 2000 and has grown into one of Switzerland's leading online banks, offering trading in equities, ETFs, forex, cryptocurrencies, and structured products alongside banking services including accounts, mortgages, and pension products. Swissquote's longevity in a market that has seen significant disruption reflects the advantages of a Swiss banking licence, a regulated custody offering, and a brand that has earned trust over three decades. Its expansion into cryptocurrency trading — becoming one of the first regulated European banks to offer crypto custody — reflected a genuine strategic decision to meet client demand rather than avoid the regulatory complexity. In the European online brokerage market, Swissquote sits at the premium end: not the cheapest option, but one of the most comprehensive and most trusted.