Zurich-based asset manager Descartes Finance is launching "Minimum Risk BTC", a new pension strategy. It systematically adds Bitcoin to the model portfolios for pillar 3a and vested benefits accounts. Depending on the risk level, the Bitcoin allocation ranges between one and five percent.
As a result, Descartes complements its existing "Passive" and "Minimum Risk" strategies, which remain unchanged. The company has been active since 2016, is owner-managed and bank-independent. CEO Adriano Lucatelli and Chairman Rino Borini run the business. According to its own statement, Descartes is the first digital asset manager in Switzerland to integrate Bitcoin into the strategic asset allocation of pension model portfolios.
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Managed allocation instead of self-service
The key difference from previous crypto offerings in pillar 3a lies in the allocation decision. At finpension and VIAC, which have offered Bitcoin options since December 2021 and March 2024 respectively, clients select the admixture manually. This pure execution-only model leaves the risk assessment to the investor.
Descartes takes the opposite route. Instead, the portfolio management team determines the Bitcoin quota based on a quantitative optimisation model and adjusts it to the risk level. The exposure runs through the BlackRock iShares Bitcoin ETP (ticker IB1T) on the SIX Swiss Exchange. BlackRock launched the physically backed product in March 2025, and the total expense ratio stands at 0.15 percent per year. Coinbase Custody International handles custody. At Descartes, management fees are all-in between 0.64 and 0.74 percent per year, with no separate Bitcoin fee.
"Our ambition is to actively assume this responsibility instead of de facto delegating it to clients." - Adriano Lucatelli, Founder and CEO, Descartes Finance
Expected return and volatility by risk level
The expected values published by Descartes show how the Bitcoin admixture shifts the return profiles. Risk level 1 lifts the expected return compared with "Minimum Risk" from 0.35 to 1.26 percent, while volatility climbs from 3.44 to 3.76 percent. At level 5, the return expectation nearly doubles, rising from 3.87 to 8.65 percent. Volatility there increases to 10.50 instead of 8.64 percent. Furthermore, the upper tiers of "Minimum Risk BTC" approach the return expectations of the pure index strategy "Passive", yet remain below its volatility.
The argument for small Bitcoin quotas draws on external studies. In 2024, Bitwise showed that a 2.5 percent admixture in a classic 60/40 portfolio lifts the Sharpe ratio from 0.551 to 0.762. Moreover, Fidelity Digital Assets identified the first 50 to 100 basis points as the most efficient allocation range. Above five percent, the effect on the Sharpe ratio flattens, while drawdown risk rises significantly. Descartes itself published a simulation for discretionary asset management in March 2025. There, a 5 percent admixture lifted the Sharpe ratio from 0.21 to 0.58.
Descartes has been deploying Bitcoin in discretionary asset management for about a year. These experiences serve as the basis for the move into regulated pension provision. Therefore, the company is following a pattern that international institutional asset managers also adopt: free assets first, then pension money.
Swiss pillar 3a market and institutional adoption
The Swiss pillar 3a market comprises an estimated 120 billion CHF in securities and account-based solutions. The maximum contribution in 2026 stands at 7,258 CHF per year, and the median wealth across all age groups is 30,400 CHF. In addition, retroactive purchases into pillar 3a for contribution gaps have been possible since 2025. The structural trend is clearly moving toward securities solutions, away from the interest-bearing savings account.
Into this environment, Descartes is pushing a product that takes on the allocation responsibility. It addresses a clientele that wants to benefit from Bitcoin in the pension portfolio but does not want to choose the quota itself. While finpension charges a flat fee of 0.39 percent per year and VIAC offers similarly low terms, Descartes positions itself at a higher price point. In return, the provider delivers active portfolio management. The choice of the BlackRock product with an expense ratio of 0.15 percent is consistent. It is the cheapest Bitcoin ETP on SIX and offers a liquid underlying with just under one billion euros in AUM.
The launch fits into a broader movement of institutional Swiss providers. For these firms, Bitcoin is no longer considered a speculative object but a strategic portfolio building block. Whether further Swiss asset managers will follow this example and likewise add Bitcoin to their managed pension portfolios should become evident in the coming quarters.
