Sygnum Bank's B2B Model Fuels Switzerland's Crypto Boom

Zurich-based Sygnum Bank has integrated its regulated cryptocurrency services directly into Bancastato’s online banking system. This enables clients in Switzerland’s Ticino region to buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Solana without needing a separate exchange account.

The integration embeds these digital assets into the same web and mobile banking applications customers already use for deposits, investments, and everyday banking. This removes a key barrier to bank-led crypto adoption: the friction of leaving a bank’s ecosystem, completing another onboarding process, and managing assets on a separate platform. By keeping everything within Bancastato’s existing interface, the experience feels like adding another investment product rather than a entirely new financial relationship.

Bancastato is also the first bank using Avaloq’s software-as-a-service banking environment to offer cryptocurrency trading through Sygnum’s API. The trading infrastructure operates behind the scenes, while customers continue using their familiar banking platform. Banks avoid rebuilding core systems, and customers avoid switching between applications. Customers can submit market orders based on the amount of cryptocurrency or its value in US dollars. Sygnum executes each trade while Bancastato maintains the customer relationship and front-end experience.

This separation reflects a model common in regulated finance: banks keep client ownership, while specialized providers handle infrastructure that would otherwise require years of development, regulatory approvals, and maintenance. Sygnum also safeguards customers’ digital assets through its institutional custody platform, which includes layered security controls, governance procedures, independent audits, and legal structures to separate customer assets from the bank’s balance sheet.

Sygnum Chief B2B Officer Fritz Jost said the integration reflects growing demand for regulated digital asset services that plug into existing banking systems. Bancastato senior executive Curzio De Gottardi explained that adding digital assets broadens the bank’s existing investment offering, reflecting a wider shift where regional banks view cryptocurrency as another asset class alongside foreign exchange and equities.

Sygnum’s B2B model focuses on providing trading, custody, compliance, and settlement infrastructure to partner institutions. Over 25 banks and financial institutions already use its platform, including Zuger Kantonalbank, Luzerner Kantonalbank, Postfinance, and VZ Vermögenszentrum. These partnerships extend regulated digital asset services to more than one-third of Switzerland’s population. Bancastato expands this network into the country’s Italian-speaking region.

Sygnum was founded in 2018 with a dual-hub structure in Zurich and Singapore. It secured Swiss banking and securities dealer licenses in 2019, placing it under FINMA supervision. It has since expanded to licensed operations in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Liechtenstein. In June 2023, Sygnum Europe obtained a crypto-asset service provider license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework.

Bancastato’s rollout mirrors Switzerland’s evolution into a mature regulated digital asset market. Studies estimate cryptocurrency ownership at 18-23% of Swiss residents, rising to 36% among 18-24 year-olds. By mid-2026, roughly 20 Swiss banks offered cryptocurrency services across over 2.5 million customer accounts, according to a Big Whale report. Banks like UBS, Zürcher Kantonalbank, and cantonal banks have introduced regulated offerings, often using specialized infrastructure providers.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/crypto-news/sygnum-banks-b2b-model-fuels-switzerlands-crypto-boom/