- One of Switzerland’s largest cantonal banks is now allowing its clients to buy and custody Bitcoin and Ether in one of the largest institutional pushes in Europe.
- The move will avail the two largest cryptocurrencies to a vast European market that has lagged behind North America and Asia in recent times.
One of the largest cantonal banks in Switzerland, St.Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB), has launched cryptocurrency purchase services for its clients in the latest proof of surging demand in Europe.
SGKB partnered with SEBA Bank, a Swiss digital asset financial institution regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). It will allow customers to purchase and custody the two largest cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin and Ethereum.
BREAKING: 🇨🇭One of Switzerland's biggest banks SGKB to offer #Bitcoin trading to customers. pic.twitter.com/WGG5fW6Ppy
— Bitcoin Archive (@BTC_Archive) November 2, 2023
SGKB will initially target its wealth-management clients, typically high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors. In the future, it intends to extend these services to its retail clients, one executive revealed. He also stated that after BTC and ETH, the bank intends to add other cryptos to offer a broader range of investment assets for its clients.
SGKB is the fifth-largest cantonal bank in Switzerland. It launched in 1868 and has expanded to 35 branches across the Central European nation. It has traded on the Swiss Stock Exchange since 2001. Christian Bieri, SEBA’s head of investment solutions stated:
It’s the first bank with a clear retail focus that we have onboarded and an example of the development we are seeing in Switzerland. This started some years before with wealth management and private banking, and now we see a lot of interest as well from retail banks.
Speaking to The Block, Bieri revealed that SGKB has been working with SEBA for months on the product, and it’s now ready for market.
St.Galler Kantonalbank and SEBA signed the contract earlier this year, after a short implementation project, SGKB is now ready to offer access to cryptocurrencies to a selected group of clients, in a first step bitcoin and ether, other currencies will follow shortly.
SGKB’s Head of Market Services, Falk Kohlmann, says the setup is straightforward and will “allow us to learn and grow well aligned to our clients’ needs.”
Swiss cantonal banks have taken to crypto in recent months, with Zuger Kantonalbank and Luzerner Kantonalbank also launching crypto-related products in recent times.
Bitcoin and Ether price jumps?
SGKB will only offer BTC and ETH initially as they are the two coins with the highest demand, the bank’s executive revealed.
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This will expose the two assets to millions who would be unlikely to turn to crypto exchanges. With the banks, investors will feel more assured, and their assets will be more secure than most platforms, especially in light of the collapse of FTX and other significant players.
With demand comes price spikes, and the latest news could have a significant impact on BTC and ETH. At press time, BTC trades at $35,389, with modest gains in the past day. ETH is inching closer to $2,000, and despite only gaining 1.2% in the past week, it trades at $1,838 at press time. The last time Ether hit $2,000 was in mid-July, but it would hit a low of $1,560 two weeks ago, before its rebound.
