Company and ownership
Sygnum was founded in 2018 and runs its banking business from Zurich through Sygnum Bank AG. Co-founder Mathias Imbach is group CEO. At the June 2026 annual general meeting fellow co-founder Luka Müller left the board for health reasons and became chairman emeritus, and Gabriela Maria Payer moved up to board president. Gerald Goh, also a co-founder, became executive chairman for Asia-Pacific. Manuel Krieger is another co-founder.
A $90 million Series B closed in January 2022 with Asia-based investors including Sun Hung Kai and SBI Holdings. The next round, led at its January 2024 interim close by Azimut Holding, ended in January 2025 at $58 million, with Fulgur Ventures as cornerstone investor and a post-money valuation above $1 billion. Insiders, including the co-founders, kept majority ownership. Sygnum reported more than $5 billion in client assets at the end of 2024 from about 2,000 institutional clients in over 70 countries, and operating profitability for that year.
Custody model and security
Sygnum Bank holds client digital assets and manages the private keys, so clients do not keep their own key material. Its custody solution was co-developed with Custodigit, a joint venture with Swisscom, and in November 2020 the bank put Taurus-PROTECT custody software and Taurus-EXPLORER node infrastructure into production next to its existing setup. PwC Switzerland issued an ISAE 3402 Type 2 report on the upgraded multi-custody platform in September 2023, following three earlier reports, and examined key generation under ISAE 3000.
Sygnum Protect, launched in 2024 with Binance, keeps trading collateral in bank custody while clients trade on exchanges. Deribit joined in March 2025 through Fireblocks Off Exchange, which mirrors the assets held at Sygnum on the venue, and Bybit is also connected. Assets on Protect passed $1 billion in March 2026 after collateral volumes rose more than 900% in 2025, and clients can post yield-bearing collateral such as US Treasuries.
Regulation and licensing
FINMA granted Sygnum a Swiss banking and securities dealer license in August 2019. In Singapore the group has held a Capital Markets Services license from MAS since 2019, adding a Major Payment Institution license for digital payment token services in October 2023. Sygnum Bank Middle East received a Financial Services Permission from the FSRA of Abu Dhabi Global Market in March 2023. Sygnum also counts Luxembourg among its regulated locations.
Sygnum Europe AG in Liechtenstein became a MiCA crypto-asset service provider in June 2026, authorized by the FMA. The ESMA register shows the authorization covering custody and administration of crypto-assets plus exchange and transfer services, passported to all 30 EEA states.
Products and integrations
Next to custody, Sygnum runs brokerage and Lombard lending. Its lending volumes rose more than 360% in the first half of 2024 compared with a year earlier, a period in which the bank turned a profit. Sygnum already offered Tezos staking when it added Ethereum staking in July 2021, calling itself the first bank to do so.
The Bank-to-Bank platform supplies digital asset services to more than 25 partner banks, PostFinance among them, and income from that business rose 70% in 2025. Sygnum Connect, a 24/7 settlement network, opened with AsiaNext and Hidden Road as its first members. Tokenization work includes projects with Fidelity International and Hamilton Lane. Under its MiCA license the EU unit offers Protect to hedge funds and other professional traders.
