Sygnum, a global digital asset banking group with ~$4.5 billion in client assets, today reported that it has reached profitability following a strong H1 2024, with key metrics seeing substantial growth year-to-date (YTD).
Business performance is enabled by expanded trading features and platform, strategic partnerships with leading digital asset and TradFi financial institutions, and a diverse, international team now over 250-strong.
Compared to the same period in 2023, the company has seen a two-fold increase in crypto spot trading volumes and a 500% rise in crypto derivatives trading on its newly-expanded platform. The company’s lending activities have also experienced strong growth, with the number of clients utilising Lombard loans almost doubling and loan volumes increasing by >360%i.
Sygnum’s Staking-as-a-Service offering has also grown, with the percentage of ETH staked by clients growing to 42%i - 15% above the global average. This is especially notable given the shifting dynamics around Ethereum-related ETF products. For institutional clients, staking ETH presents a unique benefit beyond the limitations of the ETF framework, which currently excludes staking yields.
“The approval and launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs were a watershed moment for the crypto sector this year, leading to a major increase in demand for trusted, regulated exposure to digital assets,” said Martin Burgherr, Sygnum’s Chief Clients Officer. “This is also reflected in Sygnum’s own growth, with our core business areas seeing a significant YTD increase in H1. We truly appreciate the continued trust of our clients, which provides the launch-pad for our accelerated international expansion, the development of new services and the scaling-up of our forward-looking initiatives for the crypto ecosystem.”
Sygnum’s institutional and professional investor client base is approaching 2,000, serviced by a diverse, international team now over 250-strong. Crypto transfer volumes on Sygnum’s institutional-grade, secure platform have increased substantially across Sygnum’s four core client segments - professional private investors, External Asset Managers and Multi-Family Offices, crypto foundations and DLT companies, and Funds and Hedge Funds.
Sygnum reached the milestone of 20+ B2B partner banks and financial institutions in June 2024, enabling more than a third of the Swiss population to conveniently trade crypto through their primary banks. Sygnum’s growing B2B roster, including names like PostFinance, Zuger Kantonalbank and Bordier & Cie, is highly active and facilitate more than 1,000 trades per day, with virtually 100% being Straight-Through Processed (STP) within seconds.
International expansion
To further accelerate its strong growth, Sygnum is expanding its regulated footprint in its home European and Asian markets. Sygnum has been active in Europe from launch and licenced in Luxembourg since 2022, one of the world’s leading fund centres. In Q1 2025, Sygnum will significantly expand its regulated footprint via a new office and licences in the world’s biggest single market, the 30 countries comprising the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA). Sygnum’s strong business performance and regulated banking platform sets the stage for its MiCA-compliant market entry. Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCAR) is a suite of uniform EU market rules for crypto-assets aimed at supporting market integrity, investor protection and financial stability.
Additionally, Sygnum is expanding its Asian market footprint via its fully-regulated digital asset financial services platform in Singapore which offers asset management, corporate advisory, crypto custody and brokerage. Plans for regulated operations in Hong Kong are also at an advanced stage. Sygnum also has a growing team in Abu Dhabi where it offers local access to a portfolio of Swiss-regulated financial services.
Strategic growth drivers
Building on its international expansion, Sygnum is leveraging its core business growth to invest in a number of exponential growth drivers.
Sygnum Connect, a network designed to make transactions in the global crypto ecosystem faster, cheaper, less risky and more reliable, is currently being scaled-up. The network offers 24/7 free, instant settlement for fiat, crypto assets, and stablecoins that eliminates counterparty and settlement risks. The network, launched in 2024, places Sygnum at the centre of global crypto ecosystem development, driving capital efficiency, increasing financial system connectivity and enhancing institutional standards.
In response to numerous client requests, Sygnum is also expanding its traditional securities offering that generated multi-billion client demand following its 2023 launch. To further compliment clients’ core digital asset investments, the traditional securities offering will soon also include self-servicing, discretionary mandates and an integrated portfolio view across all asset classes.
Over the past six months, Sygnum has also raised over $40 million via an oversubscribed funding round, leading to its core equity capital reaching >$125 million USD equivalent, and the business being valued at $900 million. It has also partnered with Fidelity International, Matter Labs and Hamilton Lane on major tokenization projects, and collaborated with Chainlink to provide fund NAV data on-chain.
iCompared to the same period last year.