Anyone who builds a business model on digital assets was put to the test in 2025. After the exceptional year 2024, with its Blackrock Bitcoin ETF euphoria, prices turned: Bitcoin ended the year at around 69,600 francs (roughly $87,000) – 19 percent below its level twelve months earlier – while Ethereum shed as much as 24 percent.

Add to that falling interest rates, a dollar depreciating sharply against the franc, and, in October, a liquidation shock that rattled global digital asset markets. In short: every revenue source of any crypto bank – trading, custody, interest income – was under unfavorable conditions at the same time.

A Genuine Stress Test

It was thus the first real stress year since Sygnum and Amina launched in 2019 as the world's first regulated crypto banks.

Which of the two business models weathered the storm better? 

What the Annual Reports Reveal

An exclusive analysis of the Sygnum and Amina annual reports shows: The roles have reversed.

finews.com has – as it did last year – gained exclusive access to the two institutions' 2025 financial statements. One novelty upfront: Amina Bank is presenting consolidated group accounts for the first time. The prior-year figures in the tables below therefore refer to the Amina Group and differ from the standalone figures for Amina Bank published a year ago.

I. Bottom Line

The first takeaway from 2025: The tables have turned. Sygnum, which was close to breaking even a year ago, has moved markedly away from that mark – its operating loss more than doubled. The bank attributes this to deliberate investments «ahead of the curve» in infrastructure, compliance, and international expansion.

Amina, by contrast, is moving in the opposite direction: Its group loss narrowed by 16 percent to 11.7 million francs. The bank speaks of «positive jaws» – rising revenues against contained costs – and reaffirms its course toward profitability.

II. Corporate Structure

* First-time consolidated group figure, including the shared-services companies in Singapore and India (B&B Analytics). On a standalone basis, Amina Bank employed 103.2 FTE in the prior year.

Sygnum's headcount grew moderately, by a good 28 positions. The apparent jump at Amina, from just over 100 to 230 full-time positions, is primarily a consolidation effect: The subsidiaries – notably the Indian analytics unit – are now included in the count.

On the personnel front, Amina saw considerable movement: With Christine McAteer (chief compliance officer), Michael Benz (CEO APAC), and Markos Theologitis (chief technology officer), no fewer than three new members joined the Executive Management in 2025.

At Sygnum, the board of directors was expanded with Pia Tischhauser and Vinod Kumar; the former chairman of the US derivatives regulator CFTC, J. Christopher Giancarlo, came on board as senior policy advisor.

III. Revenues, in CHF Thousands

Here lies one of the more remarkable findings of 2025: Amina grew in all three of its core revenue pillars – interest income rose 17 percent, commission income 22 percent, and trading income 7 percent.

At Sygnum, the picture points the other way: Net interest income slumped 17 percent, trading income fell by a good quarter, and other ordinary income dropped by almost three quarters. Only the commission business – Sygnum's flagship discipline – grew by nearly 9 percent and prevented worse. The bottom line was still a revenue decline of around 9 percent, while Amina posted its second consecutive record year.

The differing revenue profiles say a great deal about the two business models. Sygnum is, at its core, an infrastructure and platform bank: 57 percent of revenues stem from commission and service business – custody, B2B services, and the off-exchange solution «Protect». 

That constellation did Sygnum no favors in 2025: Treasury income on client deposits suffered from the Swiss National Bank's rate cuts and the weakness of the dollar.

Amina, by contrast, is first and foremost a trading bank: A good half of its revenues come from trading, chiefly in cryptocurrencies. What finews.com classified a year ago as the risk factor of a volatile business model proved a stabilizer in the turbulent 2025: Trading banks earn on movement, not direction. Interest and commission income also grew at double-digit rates, albeit from a lower base.

A direct comparison of the trading lines falls short, however, as the two banks book their crypto trading business differently. Amina trades as a so-called principal on its own book and reports the income under trading operations. Sygnum, by contrast, executes client transactions under a «riskless principal» model – every client order is immediately covered by a mirroring offsetting trade – and books the margins as fees under commission income. According to the bank, roughly two-thirds of its commission income is attributable to the trading business.

On a like-for-like basis, Sygnum thus generated trading income of around 22.5 million francs in 2025 (previous year: around 20.7 million) – more than Amina, and likewise growing. This means that the remaining third of Sygnum's commission income stems from classic recurring fees from custody and services.

Fitting the pattern is the Lombard lending business against crypto collateral, in which both continue to grow: Sygnum's client loans rose to 260 million francs (prior year: 235 million), Amina's to 133 million francs (prior year: 103 million). The price declines reportedly triggered «margin calls» for some clients at both banks, though no serious difficulties resulted.

At Sygnum, meanwhile, the weakness is clearly attributable to the environment rather than the product business: Product-driven revenues grew 18 percent, according to the bank, revenues from «Sygnum Protect» quadrupled, and those of the B2B platform rose by around 70 percent.

IV. B2B and White-Labeling Business

In the bank-to-bank business – banks offering their clients crypto services without building their own infrastructure – the hierarchy remains unchanged: Sygnum extended its lead in 2025 and now serves more than 25 partner banks.

Through Postfinance in particular, the bank says it reaches over a third of the Swiss population; by 2027, it aims to become one of Europe's largest regulated bank-to-bank networks measured by client reach.

Amina's B2B2C solution, used by 17 institutions a year ago, plays a distinctly smaller role in the bank's communication – the focus is clearly on direct business with «crypto natives» and traditional investors («dual play»). The increase to more than 20 B2B clients nonetheless signals continued ambitions.

V. International Expansion

In the race for Europe, Amina is ahead on timing: The MiCA license from Austria's Financial Market Authority arrived as early as the fourth quarter of 2025 and, via EU passporting, opens the door to up to 30 markets.

Sygnum chose the route via EEA member Liechtenstein – the MiCAR license from the principality's FMA only took effect with the expiry of the transition period on June 30, 2026, as finews.com reported. 

The view across the Atlantic differs as well: While Sygnum remains cautious toward the US market – which has thawed considerably in regulatory terms of late – it is clearly in Amina's strategic focus.

VI. Costs, in CHF Thousands

Both institutions managed to slightly reduce other operating expenses, while personnel costs rose. At Amina, the consolidation effect qualifies the per-capita comparison: The lower-cost shared-services locations in India and Singapore pull down the average.

VII. Selected Balance Sheet and Volume Figures, in CHF Thousands

On client assets, the gap is widening: Sygnum reports the highest net new money inflow in its history, equivalent to over 1 billion dollars – client assets held steady at 4.6 billion francs despite the adverse price environment. Amina, by contrast, recorded net outflows of 75 million francs; combined with the market correction, assets under management and custody shrank by a fifth to 2.8 billion francs.

On the capital side, both houses stand on solid ground: Amina Bank reports a standalone CET1 ratio of 31 percent and a liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) of 385 percent. Sygnum strengthened its capital base in January 2025 with the completion of its «Strategic Growth Round» – joining the unicorn club at a valuation of over 1 billion dollars.

After seven years, the verdict is more layered than a year ago. Sygnum is and remains the larger, more technology-intensive, and more broadly diversified house, with record net new money, a booming product business, and unicorn status.

But 2025 has shown: When crypto valuations, interest rates, and the dollar all turn at once, the balance-sheet-heavy platform bank suddenly loses millions in treasury income – and its loss doubles. Undeterred, the bank is investing heavily in its future. 

Amina, for its part, is delivering operationally: growth in all three revenue pillars, two record years in a row, shrinking losses, regulatory territorial gains in Europe and Asia – and, with the US, an ambitious next target. 

The race between the two Swiss crypto banking pioneers thus heads into the next round – with momentum reversed and plenty of faith in the future. For now, neither institution is in the black.