Digital asset bank Signum reported profitability on Wednesday following strong first-half results.
According to a statement shared with The Block, Sygnum has seen cryptocurrency spot trading double, crypto derivatives trading increase by 500%, and lending volume increase by over 360% in the first half of 2024 compared to the same period last year.
Cryptocurrency transfers on Sygnum’s institutional-grade platform have grown significantly across four key customer segments: professional individual investors, external asset managers and multi-family offices, cryptocurrency foundations and DLT companies, and funds and hedge funds.
Sygnum’s “Staking-as-a-Service” offering has also seen notable growth, with the percentage of Ether staked by customers increasing to 42% following the approval of a spot Ethereum ETF in the US, excluding current staking yields.
“The approval and launch of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs has been a watershed year for the crypto space, with demand for trusted and regulated exposure to digital assets growing significantly,” said Martin Burgherr, Sygnum’s Chief Client Officer. “This is reflected in Sygnum’s growth, with our core business growing significantly YTD in the first half of the year.”
The crypto bank’s institutional and professional investor client base is now approaching 2,000 worldwide, and is serviced by a team of over 250 people. Sygnum reached over 20 partner banks and financial institutions in June, enabling more than a third of the Swiss population to trade cryptocurrencies through major banks, and the company claims to facilitate over 1,000 transactions per day.
Sygnum now has approximately $4.5 billion in customer assets and over $125 million in equivalent core equity following a $40 million funding round at a $900 million valuation announced in January.
Sygnum’s International Expansion Plans
In Europe, Sygnum holds licenses in Switzerland and Luxembourg and plans to significantly expand its regulatory footprint to cover all 30 countries that make up the European Union and the European Economic Area by Q1 2025.
The Markets in Cryptocurrencies Act (MiCA) is a comprehensive regulatory framework established by the European Union to ensure uniformity in cryptocurrency regulation across member states.
Sygnum also plans to expand in Asia through its fully regulated digital asset financial services platform in Singapore, which offers asset management, corporate advisory, cryptocurrency custody and brokerage. This includes plans to operate regulated operations in Hong Kong, which the company says is “at an advanced stage.” Sygnum is also licensed in Abu Dhabi, giving it local access to a Swiss-regulated financial services portfolio.
The company added that it is leveraging its recent growth to invest in infrastructure, including expanding Sygnum Connect, a network designed to make trading in the global cryptocurrency ecosystem faster, cheaper, less risky, and more secure, as well as expanding its existing securities offerings.
Sygnum has partnered with Fidelity International, Matter Labs, and Hamilton Lane to advance tokenization projects, and is working with Chainlink to make fund NAV data available on-chain in 2024.
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