Sygnum Bank

Sygnum Bank is the world's first bank to receive a banking and securities dealer licence from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) built specifically around digital assets, a milestone achieved in August 2019. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Zurich, it operates as a regulated institution at the intersection of traditional banking and the digital asset economy. Alongside its Swiss base, Sygnum holds a Capital Markets Services licence and a Major Payment Institution licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), an EU MiCAR-aligned licence through its Liechtenstein entity, and a regulated presence in Abu Dhabi through the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). This multi-jurisdictional regulatory stack is the defining feature of the institution: it positions Sygnum not as a crypto-native exchange or custodian operating in regulatory grey areas, but as a fully licensed bank that treats digital assets as a primary business line.

By the end of fiscal year 2025, Sygnum reported approximately USD 6 billion in client assets and around 2,300 clients spread across more than 80 countries. The bank reached unicorn status in January 2025 following a USD 58 million funding round led by Fulgur Ventures, and recorded net new money exceeding USD 1 billion for the first time in the same year. These figures reflect a growth trajectory that has accelerated as institutional appetite for regulated crypto infrastructure has expanded globally.

Services

Sygnum offers a full suite of banking services centred on digital assets. Trading covers more than 30 cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, Cardano, and USD Coin, with execution through Sygnum's own platform. Custody is delivered under the Sygnum Protect brand, which surpassed USD 1 billion in assets under custody by March 2026 and enforces client-asset segregation to institutional standards.

Staking is available across multiple proof-of-stake networks, with annual yields ranging from 4% to 10% depending on the asset. Supported networks have included Ethereum, Cardano, Tezos, Internet Computer, and Cosmos, with Solana added to the staking offering in 2025. Lending is structured primarily through Lombard loans, denominated in Swiss francs, euros, US dollars, and Singapore dollars, and collateralised against more than 20 digital assets.

Tokenization -- the issuance of digital securities on-chain -- rounds out the core banking offering. Sygnum treats tokenization as an institutional-grade capital markets service, subject to the same regulatory and compliance standards as its other licensed activities.

The bank also operates a significant business-to-business division. More than 20 Swiss banks use Sygnum's regulated infrastructure to deliver crypto services to their own clients, a reach that, by Sygnum's estimate, covers approximately one third of the Swiss population. PostFinance, the retail banking arm of Swiss Post and one of Switzerland's systemically important institutions, has relied on Sygnum for the custody and staking infrastructure underpinning its crypto offerings since PostFinance became the first systemically important Swiss bank to offer crypto in early 2024. This B2B model extends Sygnum's regulatory and technical capabilities into mainstream retail banking without those banks needing to build their own digital asset infrastructure.

Solana Integration

Sygnum's relationship with Solana has deepened progressively and now spans custody, lending, and validator infrastructure.

In May 2025, Sygnum added staked SOL to the list of tokens eligible as collateral for Lombard loans. The mechanics allow clients to borrow fiat currency against SOL that remains actively staked, meaning staking rewards continue to accrue during the loan term. In practice, this means a borrower can access liquidity without liquidating the position and can use staking yield to offset a portion of borrowing costs. At the time of the announcement, Lombard loan volume at Sygnum had doubled over the preceding twelve months.

In October 2025, Sygnum Bank Middle East launched institutional-grade Solana validator nodes from within the ADGM in Abu Dhabi. The validator service was announced on October 17, 2025 and represented the first in a planned expansion of Sygnum Validators across select blockchain networks. The service is non-custodial by design: eligible SOL holders delegate their tokens to Sygnum's validator nodes through their preferred wallet interface, earning staking rewards while retaining full custody and control of their assets. No client onboarding with Sygnum is required to use the validator. Giulia Finkbeiner-Bertoni, Senior Executive Officer, described the validator programme as reflecting the bank's broader commitment to supporting the growth and resilience of the Web3 economy beyond regulated banking services. Lukas Doebelin, Head of Validator Nodes and Platform Infrastructure, noted that the service makes it possible for eligible token holders to benefit from Sygnum's expertise in blockchain infrastructure while keeping custody and control of their assets.

Solana was selected as the first network for the ADGM validator launch, a choice the bank attributed to Solana's low transaction costs, high throughput, and growing institutional adoption. Sygnum has also previously operated validator nodes for Cosmos and Internet Computer, establishing a track record in blockchain infrastructure management before expanding to Solana.

2025-2026 Milestones

Beyond the Solana-specific developments, Sygnum has moved on several other fronts. In August 2025, the bank became the first Swiss institution to fully support the SUI token, offering custody and trading. In December 2025, Sygnum partnered with BNY for USD settlement services, adding the infrastructure of one of the world's largest custodian banks to its settlement stack. In February 2026, Sygnum launched Sygnum Select, a treasury management service aimed at corporate and institutional clients holding financial assets on their balance sheets.

The bank continues to publish institutional research through Sygnum Asset Management, with recent output covering crypto yield strategies, the composition of Bitcoin's 2026 rally, and the growing role of spot ETF inflows as a read on institutional demand durability.

Positioning

Sygnum occupies a specific niche: it is neither a retail exchange nor an unregulated custodian. It operates as a bank, subject to Swiss banking law, Singapore's MAS framework, and EU MiCAR rules, with all the compliance infrastructure those licences require. For institutional investors, family offices, asset managers, and financial intermediaries that cannot or will not engage with unregulated crypto infrastructure, Sygnum represents one of the few venues where full-service digital asset banking -- including credit, staking, and custody -- is available under a banking licence rather than a lighter-touch regulatory wrapper.

Within the Solana ecosystem specifically, the October 2025 ADGM validator launch gives Sygnum a direct role in network security, while the staked-SOL collateral product creates a pathway for institutional holders to put idle positions to work without exiting them. These products sit alongside Sygnum's broader trading and custody coverage of SOL, making the bank one of the more comprehensively integrated regulated venues for institutional Solana exposure.