BancaStato, the cantonal bank of Ticino in southern Switzerland, has launched regulated crypto trading, a service that lets clients buy, hold, and sell bitcoin from the bank’s existing web and mobile apps, the digital asset bank Sygnum said on Thursday.
The bank connected Sygnum’s application programming interface to its Avaloq core banking system and digital channels, a setup that places bitcoin trading inside the same apps clients use for traditional accounts.
At launch, clients can trade bitcoin (BTC) and other crypto with market orders placed by quantity or U.S. dollar value.
Bitcoin sits at the center of the offering, a pattern across the wave of European banks that have added crypto services. BancaStato clients gain exposure to the asset through a regulated channel rather than a standalone exchange, and their holdings rest in Sygnum’s custody rather than on the bank’s own balance sheet.
Sygnum said client assets are held in an institutional-grade, multi-layer custody solution built on hardware and software controls, governance processes, and independent external audits. The firm said all client assets are held off-balance sheet in regulatory and legal compliance, a structure meant to shield holdings if the bank enters bankruptcy.
The point matters for bitcoin holders, since a bearer asset kept off the balance sheet stays separate from the claims of a failed institution’s creditors.
The integration runs on Sygnum’s B2B API without a separate order management system, an approach the firms said cuts cost and complexity. “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,” said Fritz Jost, Sygnum’s chief B2B officer.
Founded in 1915, BancaStato runs its core banking and digital channels on the Avaloq platform in a software-as-a-service model. Curzio De Gottardi, the bank’s head of products and services and vice-chairman of its executive board, cast the launch as an extension of the bank’s existing lineup. “Our seamless integration of traditional assets, investment solutions — and now digital assets — further enhances our group’s future-ready offering,” he said.
BancaStato joins Zuger Kantonalbank and more than 25 other banks and financial institutions on Sygnum’s B2B platform. Sygnum said its partner banks give more than a third of the Swiss population a route to own digital assets.
Bitcoin in swiss banks
The launch adds to a run of Swiss institutions bringing BTC to their clients. Zürcher Kantonalbank, the country’s fourth-largest bank, rolled out bitcoin trading and custody; St. Galler Kantonalbank opened bitcoin buying and custody to retail clients; and UBS has weighed bitcoin trading for select wealth clients. Sygnum itself has built out bitcoin-linked lending, from a partnership with Relai on BTC-backed loans to a $50 million bitcoin-backed syndicated loan for Ledn.
Sygnum holds a Swiss banking license and, since June 30, 2026, a Crypto-Asset Service Provider license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation, granted by Liechtenstein’s Financial Market Authority.
That license lets EU banks tap Sygnum’s infrastructure to launch digital asset services, a path other providers such as Bitcoin Suisse have taken from the same jurisdiction.