Swiss Bank BancaStato Brings Bitcoin and Ether Trading Into Its Banking App. BancaStato has launched regulated crypto trading through Sygnum and Avaloq, letting clients buy and hold Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Solana inside its banking app. By Ravi Kumar July 23, 2026 Updated:July 23, 2026 No Comments 6 Mins Read Swiss Bank BancaStato Brings Bitcoin and Ether Trading Into Its Banking App. Image source: BancaStato. Swiss Bank BancaStato has started offering regulated cryptocurrency trading to clients through a partnership with Sygnum and banking software provider Avaloq. This brings another Swiss lender to the group of banks embedding digital assets inside existing online banking systems. The Ticino cantonal bank has connected Sygnum's business-to-business API with Avaloq's core banking and digital banking channels. The integration allows BancaStato clients to buy, hold and sell Bitcoin, Ether, Litecoin and Solana directly through the bank's web and mobile banking applications, without using a separate crypto exchange or external wallet. The rollout is notable because BancaStato is using Sygnum's API directly inside Avaloq's software-as-a-service environment. According to Sygnum, BancaStato is the first bank on Avaloq's SaaS environment to let clients buy, hold and sell crypto through Sygnum's API from within its e-banking platforms. That matters because much of bank crypto adoption has so far been blocked not by client demand, but by plumbing. Banks need regulated custody, trading execution, compliance controls, risk management and integration with legacy core banking systems. A direct API model can reduce the need for a separate order management system, lowering operational complexity and shortening the path to launch. "We are proud to welcome BancaStato to our fast-growing B2B network, which illustrates the growing demand for Sygnum's regulated, API-driven digital asset services that integrate directly into existing core banking systems," Fritz Jost, Sygnum's Chief B2B Officer, said in a statement shared with AlexaBlockchain. "BancaStato, becoming the first bank on Avaloq's SaaS environment to enable clients to buy, hold and sell crypto via API with Sygnum directly from within its e-banking platforms, marks a significant step in the maturity and scalability of regulated digital asset infrastructure," Fritz added. BancaStato, formally Banca dello Stato del Cantone Ticino, is the cantonal bank serving Ticino in southern Switzerland. The bank and its private banking affiliate Axion SWISS Bank renewed their Avaloq Core Platform agreement in 2023, with Avaloq saying at the time that both institutions used Avaloq's platform in a SaaS model and its banking operations offering. For clients, the immediate change is access. They can place market orders by quantity or dollar value inside existing e-banking and mobile banking channels. Sygnum will provide the execution and custody layer, while BancaStato keeps the front-end relationship with clients. Client assets will be held through Sygnum's custody infrastructure and kept off-balance sheet, according to the announcement. That structure is important in Switzerland because it is intended to give clients legal and regulatory protection if a custodian becomes insolvent, although crypto assets remain volatile and can lose value sharply. The launch also extends Sygnum's bank-to-bank strategy. Sygnum said in 2024 that its B2B partners included PostFinance, Zuger Kantonalbank, Luzerner Kantonalbank, VZ Depotbank, PKB, SocGen Forge, Bordier and Bison Digital Assets, and that those partners collectively gave more than a third of Switzerland's population access to digital assets through partner banks. PostFinance is one of the more visible examples. The Swiss financial institution launched a crypto offering with Sygnum in 2024 for its 2.5 million customers, allowing users to access crypto through PostFinance's own e-finance and app channels. In May 2026, PostFinance expanded the service to corporate clients, allowing them to trade 22 cryptocurrencies and stake Ethereum directly through e-finance or the PostFinance app. Those launches show how Swiss bank crypto adoption is shifting from standalone experiments to embedded banking services. Instead of asking clients to move funds to a crypto-native venue, banks are trying to keep the account, trading interface and custody relationship inside their existing regulated perimeter. BancaStato's launch comes shortly after Sygnum Europe received a Crypto-Asset Service Provider licence in Liechtenstein under the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation. Sygnum said the licence, announced on June 30, allows it to expand its regulated platform and bank-to-bank infrastructure into the European market as MiCAR's transition period ends. The timing is significant. MiCAR gives crypto-asset service providers a harmonized licensing framework across the European Union, making it easier for banks to evaluate regulated partners rather than build digital-asset infrastructure from scratch in each market. Sygnum has been building around that model for years. The company received a banking and securities dealer licence from Switzerland's financial regulator FINMA in 2019, one of the first such licences granted to blockchain-focused financial institutions in the country. It has also grown financially. Sygnum reached a $1 billion valuation in 2025 after raising $58 million, with Reuters reporting that the company planned to use the funds to expand in Europe and Hong Kong and invest in infrastructure and products. The BancaStato deal fits into a broader Swiss push to connect traditional banking infrastructure with digital assets. In April 2026, UBS, PostFinance, Sygnum, Raiffeisen, Zürcher Kantonalbank and BCV joined a sandbox project to test a Swiss-franc stablecoin, with the goal of exploring how blockchain applications could connect to the Swiss franc. Swiss banks have also tested blockchain-based payment infrastructure. In 2025, PostFinance, Sygnum and UBS completed a feasibility study for a binding payment using bank deposits on a public blockchain, according to the Swiss Bankers Association. Market infrastructure is moving in the same direction. FINMA approved BX Digital, a Swiss subsidiary of Boerse Stuttgart, to operate a blockchain-based trading system in 2025, with the platform designed to support tokenized assets and direct settlement using blockchain infrastructure. The result is a more institutional phase of crypto adoption in Switzerland. Earlier cycles were dominated by crypto exchanges, wallets and retail trading apps. The newer phase is being led by banks, software providers and regulated infrastructure firms trying to make crypto access look like another banking function. With this launch, BancaStato adds a digital-asset product line without operating as a crypto exchange. Christian Haux, Avaloq's Managing Director for Switzerland and Liechtenstein, said the project shows how integration can help banks respond faster to investor expectations while keeping services on a unified platform. For BancaStato clients, he said, the service allows them to view and manage digital and traditional portfolios in one place. Swiss banks have shown that regulated crypto access can be embedded into mainstream banking apps. The harder question is whether clients use those services beyond Bitcoin and Ether exposure, and whether banks can turn digital assets into a durable revenue line rather than a defensive product extension. The above article "Swiss Bank BancaStato Brings Bitcoin and Ether Trading Into Its Banking App" was first published on AlexaBlockchain. Read the complete article here: https://alexablockchain.com/swiss-bank-bancastato-brings-bitcoin-and-ether-trading-into-its-banking-app/ Disclaimer: The information provided on AlexaBlockchain is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Read complete disclaimer here. Ravi is Founder and Chief Content Officer of AlexaBlockchain. He writes about everything at the cross-section of blockchain, crypto, AI, markets, and the economy. Ravi can be reached at [email protected] More AlexaBlockchain. July 24, 2026 July 23, 2026 July 21, 2026 July 15, 2026

Switzerland's BancaStato enters crypto trading via Sygnum. The cantonal bank BancaStato of Ticino, based in the southern region of Switzerland, has introduced an interesting service to earn its place as an entry provider of cryptocurrency for retail customers in Switzerland. Starting from July 23, BancaStato customers became able to buy, hold, and trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and Litecoin via the app they had previously used to check their balance. Updated Jul 23, 2026 4 min. read Table Of Contents Sygnum Bank and Avaloq architecture. The trading process is based on the infrastructure provided by Sygnum Bank (Zurich), which is directly integrated into the existing Avaloq core banking system of BancaStato. This is a small IT detail, but it has great meaning behind it. It can be assumed that with such an attitude of Swiss banks towards cryptocurrency, the opportunity of crypto usage is not perceived as a product that should be developed anymore, but as a service that can be simply integrated. What changed for BancaStato customers. For now, BancaStato offers a very limited assortment of cryptocurrencies, as only four of them are available (BTC, ETH, LTC, SOL). The purchases and sales can either be made in quantities of coins or in euros through the usual e-banking and online banking services of the financial institution. Furthermore, clients don't go through any special onboarding when starting to use the crypto services - as soon as they start using cryptocurrency, it simply appears in the system along with the clients' regular banking accounts. This is done for the purpose of simplicity, as BancaStato does not operate as an exchange or deal with custody of crypto coins. Execution and custody of the assets is done by another company (Sygnum), which provides custody services for BancaStato by using hardware and software solutions, having its own governance as well as independent auditing of the coins while keeping their customers' coins off the company's balance sheet. The technical shortcut: no Order Management System required. The more interesting part of this deal sits below the surface. BancaStato connected to Sygnum's B2B API without creating or obtaining a separate Order Management System, which is a level banks use to send and compare trades. Omitting this step decreases both costs and operational risks and means that BancaStato can later upgrade and extend its crypto capabilities without changing the entire infrastructure. That makes BancaStato the first bank running on Avaloq's software-as-a-service environment to offer this kind of API-based crypto trading. In the case of Avaloq, a core banking platform, this situation shows that digital assets can be used side by side with cash, stocks, and bonds, instead of having to be collected in a special program apart from the core system. A cantonal bank doing what cantonal banks do. BancaStato, established in 1915, has been operating for over one hundred years as a traditional institution. Its mission is to provide services to the economy and tax savers of Ticino. For this reason, its entry into the market of cryptocurrency trading is of less importance as a bold decision than a signal that regulated crypto-trading has become very popular and common in Switzerland. Curzio De Gottardi, who is the manager of the Products and Services department of the bank, explained that the bank's operations in the cryptocurrency area are just an addition to the current investment processes of the bank and do not change anything, with cryptocurrencies being in the same line of relations and clients' expectations as stocks and funds. Sygnum's real product is distribution, not Bitcoin. BancaStato has now become one of the over 25 banks and other financial institutions that use Sygnum's B2B platform, which includes PostFinance, Zuger Kantonalbank, SocGen FORGE, Bordier & Cie and many more. Sygnum's conditions that attracted such partners have always rested on the ability of the institutions to allow offering of the "really regulated" access, without being obliged to invest in the establishment of their own custody, execution, and compliance. According to Sygnum, the number of its partners already covers about one-third of the population of Switzerland. The new distribution strategy has produced some significant results, proving to be successful. When PostFinance implemented the crypto-trading service powered by Sygnum, 61% of those customers purchased crypto for the first time. This data indicates that this integration does not simply appeal to existing traders, but actually attracts new customers to PostFinance. Levin later enhanced this service by introducing Ethereum staking through the same infrastructure. The regulatory backdrop. The launch at BancaStato comes a few weeks after Sygnum Europe began operating a Crypto-Asset Service Provider license, now issued in Liechtenstein after a green light from regulators on June 30 under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation by the European Union. This license will allow Sygnum to use its banking-to-banking model beyond the borders of Switzerland, thus opening up the possibility to provide banks in the EU and European Economic Area with the same plug-in infrastructure as BancaStato. What's not included (yet). BancaStato hasn't announced any plans to expand beyond its four launch assets or add features like staking. But the bank now has a live, direct connection into Sygnum's platform, and every other Sygnum partner bank that started small has tended to add capabilities later rather than stand still. Currently, the title reads more easily: a century-old regional bank has succeeded in making crypto trading as simple as checking one's account balance and has done so without putting in place any new infrastructure. Adoption Banking & Finance Business Institutional Markets

Swiss banking giant Sygnum expands reach in Europe with new micar licence. * July 1, 2026 Reading Time: 2 minutes Press play to listen to this content Swiss digital asset banking conglomerate, Sygnum, is amplifying its expansion efforts throughout Europe following the procurement of a Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license for its Liechtenstein-based subsidiary. This approval paves the way for the firm to engage directly with clients across the European Union and European Economic Area, marking a significant development in its global expansion agenda. The granting of the license arrives as the EU's MiCA transition phase winds down, permitting Sygnum Europe to operate under the bloc's standardized cryptocurrency regulatory framework. With its robust banking infrastructure spanning Switzerland, Singapore, and the Middle East, the firm seeks to broaden its client base among wealthy individuals, institutional investors, and financial institutions throughout Europe. Banking platform at the forefront. Sygnum differentiates itself from other recently licensed crypto service providers by integrating its MiCA license with a well-grounded banking platform, institutional-quality custody and digital asset investment products, and an immediately deployable Bank-to-Bank infrastructure. Simon Schneider, the Chief Executive of Sygnum Europe, emphasized that the blending of traditional and digital finance makes trust Europe's most precious asset. He further stated that having direct access to the European market would enable the firm to offer its regulated digital asset services to a wider range of clientele. Concentration on private wealth and institutions. Sygnum is primarily targeting Europe's burgeoning pool of ultra-wealthy individuals open to investing in digital assets. Clients will have the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, through integrated accounts, all under the protection of regulated institutional custody. They will also have access to products like the Sygnum Crypto Yield Fund. Sygnum is also keen on capturing the interest of institutional investors. The firm plans to offer its off-exchange custody platform, Protect, to hedge funds, asset managers, and proprietary trading firms. The platform's design, which disassociates custody from trading locales, aims to diminish the counterparty risks linked with cryptocurrency exchanges. Sygnum also identifies a significant opportunity in catering to Europe's banking sector. The company highlights that the majority of the continent's approximately 5,000 banks have not yet integrated digital asset services due to the stringent infrastructure and regulatory prerequisites. Through its Bank-to-Bank platform, Sygnum empowers financial institutions to roll out regulated digital asset offerings more swiftly, while cutting down on execution costs and operational intricacy. The company currently offers digital asset capabilities through over 25 partner banks, reaching over a third of Switzerland's population. By 2027, it expects to be one of Europe's largest regulated Bank-to-Bank digital asset networks by client reach. As part of its European growth strategy, Sygnum continues to invest in artificial intelligence. The bank was the first regulated Swiss bank to carry out live AI-facilitated digital asset transactions using a human-supervised approach that blends AI with human oversight. Questions & answers. What is the significance of Sygnum acquiring a Markets in Crypto-Assets license? Securing the MiCA license enables Sygnum to operate directly with clients across the European Union and European Economic Area, marking a key milestone in its global expansion plans. What services will Sygnum provide to its targeted clientele in Europe? Sygnum aims to offer its regulated digital asset services, including a well-established banking platform, institutional-quality custody, digital asset investment products, and an immediately deployable Bank-to-Bank infrastructure. What strategy does Sygnum plan to implement to capture the interest of institutional investors? The firm plans to offer its off-exchange custody platform, Protect, to hedge funds, asset managers, and proprietary trading firms. This platform, designed to separate custody from trading locales, seeks to reduce counterparty risks associated with cryptocurrency exchanges.