The Zug, St. Gallen and Lucerne cantonal banks have been offering services for cryptocurrencies for six months now. Soon the elephant could enter the room. The Cantonal Bank of Zürich (Zücher Kantonalbank, ZKB) is nearing an offer for trading Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), as CVJ.CH has learned.
Both cryptocurrencies appeared yesterday evening in the trading section of the ZKB mobile app as the only "digital assets". The app offers a historical price development in US dollars. Customers cannot trade the cryptocurrencies. This gives them a similar status to restricted securities, which only contain price information. However, sources close to the matter confirmed that ZKB is getting closer to launching a crypto offering. Upon request from CVJ.CH, the press office did not confirm the rumors. "The bank is generally analyzing its range of services and products on an ongoing basis and adapting them to changing customer wishes and needs where necessary." Information on new products would be communicated as part of the product launch.
The best articles of the week, directly delivered into your mailbox.Subscribe to our newsletter
One cantonal bank follows the next
History was made at the Cantonal Bank of Zug in October 2023. The bank was the first Swiss state institution to offer its customers direct access to six different cryptocurrencies. The offer was met with strong customer demand, as ZugerKB confirmed in an interview with CVJ.CH. The fact that other cantonal banks would follow was also openly communicated. Only a few weeks later, the Cantonal Bank of St. Gallen entered the field. And their colleagues in Lucerne celebrated the launch in March 2024.
"As with other topics, the cantonal banks are in loose contact with each other. I am convinced that other institutions will join in. I don't want to speculate on when and in what form these offerings will come onto the market. In five years' time, not all cantonal banks will probably be offering crypto investments, but we will certainly not be the only ones offering investments in digital assets alongside LUKB and SGKB." - Jan Damrau, Head of the Corporate Management Department at the Cantonal Bank of Zug
According to well-informed sources, ten state banks are allegedly on the verge of launching their own crypto products, Finanz und Wirtschaft reported two weeks ago. This means that more than half of all cantonal banks are looking into the topic. The elephant in the room is the Cantonal Bank of Zurich. With total assets of 200 billion Swiss francs (CHF), the bank manages by far the most money of any state-owned bank in Switzerland. ZKB itself has never provided any information about a planned crypto offering. However, various discussions with industry representatives have confirmed the suspicions. The biggest unknown remains the date for the official release.
Competition is heating up
Other Swiss financial institutions are also positioning themselves. In addition to the cantonal banks, PostFinance launched its crypto offering this February. The lively customer interest serves as motivation. Since 2019, PostFinance has recorded over 1 billion Swiss francs in outflows on crypto exchanges. Pioneers such as Swissquote benefited from these outflows. If companies want to retain these customers, they need their own offering.
Other banks remain somewhat more cautious. UBS in particular has barely a positive word to say about the asset class. Nevertheless, pilot projects with digital assets are progressing rapidly in Switzerland. In addition to the Swiss National Bank (SNB), UBS, ZKB, Commerzbank, Hypothekarbank Lenzburg and the cantonal banks of Vaud and Basel are involved in the CBDC project "Helvetia III".
