Demand for crypto stamp crashes post office’s online shop

The launch of Swiss Post’s first “crypto” stamp has met with such high demand that the online shop was overwhelmed for several hours.

Sales of the “Swiss Crypto Stamp” started at 6am on Thursday. Demand was very high, which had “temporarily led to technical problems on postshop.ch”, the Swiss Post told the AWP news agency. It said technicians were working on eliminating the last faults.

In recent weeks Swiss Post had been contacted by many interested parties, a spokesperson explained. Swiss Post was naturally pleased with the high demand, he said, “but we didn’t expect it to be so high on the first day”. The launch was announced at the end of September.

The crypto stamp consists of two parts. While it is a physical stamp worth CHF8.90 ($9.50), every crypto stamp also has a related digital image. This digital image shows one of 13 possible designs, is stored in a blockchain and can be collected, exchanged and traded online.

A total of 175,000 stamps will be issued, with 65,000 copies of the most common digital design but just 50 of the rarest.

Swiss Post, which teamed up with blockchain services provider Inacta to produce the stamp, said on Thursday that around three-quarters of the limited editions had already gone in the first three hours.