Sygnum's World-First Digital Asset Bank Achieves Operational Status

Less than a month after becoming the world’s first digital asset bank, Sygnum announced that it has digitally onboarded its first customers and banked its first digital assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum. Sygnum’s new operational status is a major landmark as it represents a concrete first step towards the mainstream adoption of digital assets into regulated finance.

On 18 September 2019, Sygnum’s first customer transactions were publicly recorded on the two most important public blockchains, Bitcoin and Ethereum. With this, Sygnum has proven that digital assets are bankable, can be managed in a convenient, non-technical way in one account, and that its customers can invest in the digital asset economy with complete trust.

Earlier in the day, Sygnum’s customers verified their identities by presenting their documents to a customer services agent over a secure video-link. Their digital assets were digitally onboarded using Sygnum’s proprietary digital asset Anti-Money Laundering (AML) solution, which meets institutional standards of regulatory compliance. It combines proven, traditional AML with tools leveraging the inherent transparency and immutability of the blockchain, with each transaction undergoing a risk classification, customer-related identifications and a risk analysis of the source and destination. Sygnum’s digital asset AML solution is also bolstered by a three-level internal review process and a future-proof modular system that anticipates market and technology trends.

These digital assets are not held in collective wallets, but in personalised, segregated wallets with institutional-grade security. These are accessed via an easy to use e-banking portal with state-of-the-art security features. Sygnum’s solution also manages the private keys within its secure, regulated infrastructure, eliminating the need for customers to keep their keys safe themselves.

“Our diversely talented team is proud of their achievements here this week, and look forward to welcoming new customers as we roll-out our services over the coming weeks and months”, states Manuel Krieger, Sygnum Co-Founder and CEO Switzerland. “By onboarding its first customers, Sygnum connects the world of regulated banking with the future finance of digital assets. Being able to entrust your Bitcoin and Ethereum, soon also a digital CHF token as well as asset tokens, to a regulated Swiss bank is no longer an aspiration; with Sygnum it’s now a reality”, adds Mathias Imbach, Sygnum Co-Founder and CEO Singapore.

Sygnum received its Swiss conditional banking licence on August 26th 2019, and became the world’s first digital asset bank days later on August 30th when it fulfilled all secondary criteria and its licence gained full legal force.