The Zuger Cantonal Bank is the first cantonal bank to offer its customers access to cryptocurrencies in partnership with Sygnum.

Zuger KB (ZUKB) is integrating the purchase, trading, and custody of cryptocurrencies into its customer offerings. Starting today, investments in cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, Polygon, and Uniswap are possible via the custody account and online offering. Switzerland is seen as one of the world's most crypto-friendly countries. 

The goal is to make investing in digital assets as easy as possible with direct integration into the bank's mobile and e-banking solutions. Customers can now manage their traditional assets and cryptocurrencies in one place, ZUKB announced in a statement (in German) Monday. All that's needed is an active custody account.

Collaboration with Sygnum and Swisscom

«We've seen the increasing demand for cryptocurrencies has long since ceased to come only from professional market participants,» said ZUKB CEO Hanspeter Rhyner. «In collaboration with our partners, we've built an advanced infrastructure that allows us to offer investors an additional diversification option.»

Sygnum and Swisscom are acting as partners, with ZUKB using Sygnum's B2B banking platform for the new offering which provides access to a wide range of Finma-regulated banking services for digital assets via a single access point. This makes it possible to seamlessly integrate regulated trading and custody of cryptocurrencies into the existing infrastructure.

Crypto-Friendly Switzerland

Support for the technological platform and infrastructure development came from Swisscom.

The same strict legal standards apply to the custody of digital assets as to classic financial transactions, the bank said. If the new offering develops favorably, the universe of tradable assets will be further expanded, with the leading bank in the Zug economic region wanting to actively shape the changes. 

LUKB in the Starting Blocks

In August, Luzerner Kantonalbank (LUKB) also announced a collaboration with Sygnum and two other companies for a crypto offering, with a start date of «by the end of 2023.»