From NFTs to Hedge Funds: Private Bank Syz Trades Tokens on the Shores of Lake Geneva

Having introduced in-house crypto custody and trading capabilities as early as 2021, Syz Bank is now preparing to extend its offering into lending and staking. The move reflects a broader conviction: digital assets are no longer peripheral and they must be integrated into wealth management with the same rigour as traditional asset classes. 

For CEO Nicolas Syz, whose father Eric co-founded Syz Bank in the mid-1990s, the question was never whether crypto would appear in front of the firm’s relationship managers. It was how and when clients’ needs would stretch into digital ecosystems. 

"We started five to six years ago to understand what clients would require in the future – how they would diversify, and what new services we needed to build," he told Sandmark in an interview.  

From curiosity to allocation 

Crypto adoption among private banking clients is no longer confined to early movers. Investors are gradually increasing their exposure, albeit cautiously, while crypto-native clients are moving in the opposite direction, seeking the safety of regulated institutions. 

This convergence is reshaping the role of private banks, supported by a regulatory framework that some Swiss financiers say is more advanced than the neighbouring European Union’s MiCA regime. The rules are certainly more established than the market structure legislation that’s stuck in Congress across the Atlantic. 

Nicolas Syz styles the firm as "a trusted partner" that can provide custody, portfolio construction, diversification and family office structuring services. Yet the approach to allocation remains measured, for now, and the company declines to disclose amounts of crypto custodied or traded. 

Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH), the two largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, are the most common in its client portfolios, accounting for roughly 90% of holdings – a concentration that reflects both familiarity with and perceived resilience of the coins. Clients can now trade and hold seven tokens through the Swiss banking platform, according to the firm. It also provides institutional access to crypto hedge fund strategies though its Syz Capital alternative investment unit.  

Bitcoin’s paradox: strength and fragility 

Bitcoin’s appeal, in Nicolas Syz’s view, lies in its scarcity, liquidity and the transparency of blockchain infrastructure. These attributes underpin its growing perception as a store of value – a narrative increasingly accepted by clients. 

But the asset remains structurally complex in the eye of the customer. 

"Valuation is still driven by what people are willing to pay," he notes, highlighting the absence of traditional pricing anchors. Scalability constraints and custody complexity further limit broader adoption, particularly among institutional investors. 

Volatility remains the defining constraint. Rather than attempting to neutralize it, the bank integrates it into allocation frameworks – a challenge given the 50% slump in Bitcoin following its all-time-high in October 2025. 

"Risk is a function of exposure," Syz says. "The higher the volatility, the smaller the allocation – and the more limited the lending capacity." 

The company has also dabbled with tokenization to boost organizational learning, distributing fractional ownership of a piece of art from its own collection to employees. However, the pace and end-state of tokenization remain uncertain, he said. 

An Alpine hub for crypto 

Switzerland continues to position itself as a key jurisdiction for digital assets, supported by a pragmatic regulatory approach and the development of the Alpine nation’s ‘Crypto Valley’ around the town of Zug in the centre of the country. Residents include the foundations behind Ethereum and Solana and challenger crypto banks such as Bitcoin Suisse and Sygnum Bank. The Zug cluster, flanked by Zurich to the north and Geneva further to the southwest, has worked with universities and venture capitalists for more than a decade in search of an ‘uber moment’ for Swiss digital asset development.  

Yet nobody from Syz was headlining last year’s annual crypto valley conference where crypto and AI fund managers mingled with startup founders and sales reps from exchanges such as Bullish and Kraken. 

Back in French-speaking Geneva, the CHF27.9 billion overseen across the Syz group's banking, asset management and alternative investment units is just a fraction of the almost CHF10 trillion managed by the nation’s banks. The sector is still crying out for a financial success story to cheer after the Swiss National Bank had to step in to handle the demise in 2023 of its No. 2 lender, Credit Suisse, resulting in a sale to larger rival UBS. 

For Nicolas Syz, regulation is not a constraint but a prerequisite. 

"It is the enabler of innovation," he said, citing the role of FINMA, the national financial regulator, in maintaining an open yet structured framework since about 2018. Despite increasing competition from faster-moving jurisdictions, he dismisses concerns about Switzerland losing ground. 

"Speed is not what defines success in our industry," he said. "Process, discipline and long-term thinking matter more – especially for a family-owned bank." 

Innovation without illusion 

Syz Bank said its move into crypto was initially driven by client demand, before it adopted a more proactive stance in recommending crypto to clients as a valid asset class. Chief Investment Officer Charles-Henry Monchau is a well-known advocate locally. 

The family ownership model, thought to inspire trust among clients, is not for everyone. Marc Syz, the CEO’s brother, recently left the firm along with business associate Richard Byworth in a move that Bloomberg described as a "split" following "disagreements" over crypto strategy. The pair will continue to develop a Bitcoin treasury vehicle outside the firm, according to the Bloomberg report, which was published in March shortly after Nicolas Syz spoke to Sandmark. 

A spokeswoman for the bank later said in an emailed response to questions from Sandmark that she didn’t know what Marc and Richard Byworth planned to do next.

The convergence of two financial worlds 

The CEO was, however, willing to give a forward-looking view on the future for crypto. He expects decentralized finance and traditional banking to converge gradually, rather than collide. DeFi’s technological advantages – continuous trading, embedded liquidity, automated processes – are undeniable, he said. But full disintermediation remains unlikely, particularly in the private banking world, which has always sold the reassurance of a banker with a name printed on a business card. 

"The human factor will remain central," he said. "Trust remains fundamental; yet in decentralized finance, it is strengthened precisely through the use of trustless systems."