The Ticino cantonal bank integrates Bitcoin into its digital channels, relying on Sygnum’s infrastructure and the Avaloq core banking platform
BancaStato, the cantonal bank of Ticino, has announced the launch of Bitcoin trading for its retail clients through its existing banking apps. The service is made possible by the custody and settlement infrastructure of Sygnum, a regulated Swiss digital bank, integrated via the Avaloq core banking system.
The arrangement allows BancaStato clients to buy and hold bitcoin directly within the banking environment they already use for traditional services, with no need to open accounts on external platforms. The technical structure rests on Sygnum‘s architecture as a regulated provider of digital asset infrastructure, while Avaloq handles the core banking integration.
BancaStato’s position carries particular weight in the Swiss banking landscape. Cantonal banks are not private institutions oriented solely toward profit: they are public-law entities, backed by cantonal state guarantees, established to serve the local economy and ordinary clients.
Switzerland has built a regulatory framework that allows licensed banks to offer digital asset services without leaving the FINMA supervisory perimeter. Sygnum was among the first institutions to obtain a full banking licence to operate in this space, and its architecture is now used by several traditional banks as the technical bridge toward offering Bitcoin to their clients. The Avaloq model, already deployed across hundreds of private and retail banks in Europe, lowers the integration threshold for institutions that wish to follow the same path.
