The Swiss digital asset bank is launching banking services for DeFi tokens including Uniswap, Aave, 1inch and Maker
Zurich-based digital asset bank Sygnum announced yesterday that it would be providing institutional-grade access to a range of decentralised finance (DeFi) tokens as part of its mission to bridge the gap between DeFi and centralised finance.
Sygnum believes the DeFi sector is instrumental in the future of finance, as evidenced by the surge in total value locked (TVL) in DeFi from $1 billion a year ago to $60 billion now.
As such, Sygnum will launch banking services for DeFi tokens which have seen strong market traction over the last year, namely, Uniswap (UNI), Aave (AAVE), 1inch (1INCH), Maker (MKR), Curve (CRV), Synthetix (SNX) and Aragon (ANT). The bank will also provide custody and trading for the USDC stablecoin.
“The innovations in the DeFi space have the potential to transform many of the existing traditional use cases in the financial industry,” explained Sygnum’s Head of Business Units, Thomas Eichenberger. “They also offer opportunities to build and create new, cutting-edge digital asset products and services offering very attractive return profiles for our clients, especially in a continued low interest environment.”
Sygnum sees even greater promise for DeFi applications in the future as the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade will significantly increase their scalability and value.
To begin with, Sygnum will provide a suite of banking services for direct DeFi investment, such as trading, transfer and institutional-grade custody. This will be followed at a later date by the introduction of DeFi yield-generating products and services.
CEO of Curve, Michael Egorov, commented, “I am extremely excited about Sygnum’s recognition of Curve Finance. By this, Sygnum is pioneering a bridge between traditional and decentralised finance, and I am sure that there will be more such bridges in the future – the future where DeFi powers a new financial system: modern, safe and efficient.”
Sygnum will also be building custom DeFi solutions geared towards institutional and private qualified clients through collaborations with leading DeFi protocols. The bank aims to make the world of DeFi convenient, trusted and bankable by integrating these products and services with cryptocurrencies, asset tokens, major national currencies and a digital CHF – all in one account.