BancaStato Becomes First Avaloq SaaS Bank to Offer Regulated SOL Trading via Sygnum

Swiss cantonal bank BancaStato has launched regulated crypto trading for its retail clients, connecting Sygnum Bank's B2B banking API directly to its Avaloq core banking system. The move makes BancaStato the first bank operating on Avaloq's software-as-a-service platform to offer crypto trading via the Sygnum API, according to a press release from Sygnum dated July 23 and reporting from CryptoBriefing.

At launch, clients can buy, hold, and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, and Solana directly from BancaStato's existing web and mobile banking applications. Orders can be placed by quantity or by US dollar value.

BancaStato (formally Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino) is a state-owned bank founded in 1915 and chartered by the Canton of Ticino in southern Switzerland. Its mandate is to serve Ticino residents and promote the canton's economy. The bank now joins more than 25 banks and international financial institutions on Sygnum's B2B platform, including PostFinance, Zuger Kantonalbank, and SocGen FORGE.

How Sygnum's API Embeds Crypto Trading in Avaloq SaaS Without an OMS

BancaStato runs on Avaloq's SaaS model, meaning the core banking system and digital banking channels are hosted and managed by Avaloq rather than deployed on-premises. Sygnum's B2B API connects directly into that existing Avaloq infrastructure, routing trading execution and custody through Sygnum's systems without requiring BancaStato to build or operate a separate Order Management System.

The absence of a standalone OMS is deliberately cited by Sygnum as a feature rather than a concession. It reduces operational complexity and cost, lowers counterparty failure points, and allows trading features (such as risk management parameters and order types) to be adapted without rebuilding middleware.

From a client perspective, the integration is invisible: BancaStato customers see crypto alongside their existing investment portfolio in the same banking app they already use, with no separate account, login, or wallet required.

Dr Curzio De Gottardi, BancaStato's Head of Products and Services Division, said the integration of traditional and digital assets "further enhances our group's future-ready offering."

Sygnum Custody Holds Client Crypto Off BancaStato's Balance Sheet

Client crypto assets are not held on BancaStato's own balance sheet. They sit in Sygnum's institutional-grade custody infrastructure, a multi-layer solution that combines hardware and software controls, strict governance processes, and independent external audits.

The off-balance-sheet structure provides an explicit bankruptcy protection: in a scenario where BancaStato encountered financial distress, client digital assets would sit outside the bank's estate, legally ring-fenced in Sygnum custody. This is the same legal architecture used across most regulated institutional crypto integrations in Europe, and it allows BancaStato to offer the product without crypto assets appearing as liabilities on its own books.

Sygnum holds a banking licence in Switzerland, an EU MiCAR licence in Liechtenstein, and regulatory approvals in Singapore, Abu Dhabi, and Luxembourg.

MiCAR Unlocks EU Expansion for Sygnum

The BancaStato launch follows a key regulatory milestone for Sygnum's European operations. On June 30, 2026, Sygnum Europe received a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) licence from the Financial Market Authority (FMA) of Liechtenstein under the EU's Markets in Crypto Assets regulation, known as MiCAR.

Under MiCAR's passporting provisions, Sygnum's Liechtenstein CASP licence allows it to offer regulated digital asset infrastructure to banks headquartered anywhere in the EU and EEA without a separate national approval in each jurisdiction. For Sygnum, the Liechtenstein authorization materially expands the addressable market for its B2B platform beyond the Swiss institutions it already serves under its Swiss banking licence.

BancaStato is Swiss, not EU, so the MiCAR licence was not the legal prerequisite for this specific deal; Sygnum's Swiss banking licence covers operations in Switzerland. But the Liechtenstein CASP positions Sygnum to replicate the BancaStato model with EU-domiciled banks running Avaloq or other core banking platforms, without requiring those banks to obtain their own crypto licences.

A Template Across 170 Avaloq Institutions

The strategic weight of this announcement lies as much with Avaloq as with BancaStato. Avaloq is a global provider of core banking and wealth management software serving more than 170 financial institutions, by its own account, including private banks, wealth managers, and retail banks across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The SaaS deployment model, where Avaloq manages the hosted environment, is increasingly common among mid-sized institutions that want enterprise-grade banking software without the infrastructure overhead.

BancaStato's integration demonstrates that Sygnum's B2B crypto API can plug directly into the Avaloq SaaS stack with no OMS layer. That is a proof of concept for the entire Avaloq SaaS client base. Any other bank on Avaloq's SaaS platform now has a documented, live integration to reference if it wants to add crypto trading.

Sygnum says its B2B network already empowers more than a third of the Swiss population to own digital assets through partner banks. The addition of Ticino-region BancaStato extends that reach to southern Switzerland, a market Sygnum had not previously served through its bank partnerships.

Why Solana Made BancaStato's Launch List Alongside Bitcoin and Ethereum

SOL's inclusion alongside BTC and ETH at a regulated Swiss cantonal bank is notable for its positioning. Swiss banks historically add new asset classes conservatively; Solana being offered at launch, rather than as a later addition after Bitcoin and Ethereum had been live for some time, shows it cleared the same institutional bar alongside the two largest cryptocurrencies.

Sygnum's track record with Solana reinforces the choice. The bank enabled staked SOL as collateral for Lombard loans in May 2025 and maintains Solana-specific institutional research and product coverage. BancaStato clients trading SOL are doing so through infrastructure that has treated Solana as a core institutional asset for over a year.

The deeper institutional story is one of infrastructure abstraction: a 111-year-old cantonal savings bank can offer Solana trading because a regulated crypto-native bank built the rails and a core banking platform it already uses made the connection seamless. Compliant infrastructure, delivered through existing software integrations, is likely the primary mechanism through which Solana reaches the next tier of European retail banking clients.