One of Switzerland’s largest financial institutions, Zürcher Kantonalbank, which manages over $290 billion in assets, has begun offering its clients the ability to trade, hold, and custody Bitcoin and Ethereum via the bank’s existing mobile app, ebanking, and other channels.
ZKB’s decision to embrace crypto aligns with Switzerland’s generally positive stance on digital assets. The Swiss National Bank, the country’s central bank, has been revealed to have indirect exposure to MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin with 226,500 BTC in its treasury.
According to an announcement, ZKB’s new offering was launched on September 4 and is “intended primarily for retail clients and 3rd party banks.” It came in partnership with Crypto Finance, a a FINMA-regulated provider of institutional trading, custody, and staking for digital assets and part of the Deutsche Börse Group, whose CEO Stijn Vander Straeten noted the move is a “further important milestone for the broad acceptance of crypto in Switzerland.”
Last year St.Galler Kantonalbank (SGKB), a Swiss bank established in 1868, announced the introduction of cryptocurrency trading services, starting with Bitcoin and Ether as a result of a collaboration with SEBA, a bank specializing in cryptocurrencies, to provide their clientele with digital asset custody and brokerage services.
ZKB’s move comes after a week in which cryptocurrency investment products saw over $300 million of outflows over the past week over “stronger-than-expected economic data” in the United States, with the data coming amid “widespread negative sentiment evident across various providers and regions.”
According to CoinShares’ latest Digital Asset Fund Flows report, cryptocurrency investment products saw $305 million of ouflows over the past week, driven by the strong economic data coming out of the US that diminished the likelihood of a 50-basis point interest rate cut.
Investment products offering exposure to the flagship cryptocurrency Bitcoin saw outflows of $319 million over the past week, while products shorting BTC saw inflows of $4.4 million, the largest figure since March.
Featured image via Pixabay.
