Category: Business

Global digital asset banking group Sygnum has announced the launch of an institutional crypto asset management service targeting the $100 billion corporate crypto treasury sector.

Sygnum Select, launched on Thursday, is described as a “discretionary mandate service” that applies Swiss banking’s established portfolio management model to crypto assets.

The service launches with live client mandates, client assets, and $200 million in actively managed portfolios already in place, a Sygnum spokesperson told Cointelegraph.

The move comes amid solid growth in corporate and public digital asset treasury companies (DATs) over the last few years, which now hold over $100 billion in crypto assets.

“Yet many lack the infrastructure for professional, institutional-grade management,” which creates “strong demand” for regulated services offering such products and addressing the gap, stated Sygnum.

There are currently 1.13 million $BTC held by public companies and 287,990 $BTC held by private firms worth a combined $97 billion, according to BitcoinTreasuries.

Not all DATs have been success stories. Ether treasury ETHZilla rebranded to “Forum” on Wednesday as part of a pivot out from holding crypto, with the new focus on tokenized assets following a 20% stock slide year to date.

Meanwhile, the world’s largest BNB treasury company, CEA Industries, has crashed 94% from its high last year, reportedly blaming the family office of Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, YZi Labs, for a “secret side agreement.”

Sygnum said there has been a shift in client needs

Sygnum Select takes full execution authority within a client’s agreed investment framework, handling strategic asset allocation, active rebalancing, and risk oversight.

“As digital assets mature and institutional adoption accelerates, we’re seeing a clear shift in what clients need,” said Sygnum chief investment officer Fabian Dori.

He added that crypto foundations and corporate treasuries are no longer simply looking for custody and trading, “they want a trusted, regulated counterparty who can actively manage their assets with the same discipline and holistic approach as a traditional private bank.”

Related: Sygnum sees tokenization and state Bitcoin reserves taking off in 2026

The live mandates include spot, staking, hedging, derivatives, tokenized securities, and market-neutral strategies, and most portfolios include multiple asset classes across traditional and crypto assets, according to Sygnum.

“Clients can now access bespoke portfolio management that combines what traditional asset managers or crypto-native firms can offer,” explained Markus Haemmerli, Sygnum’s head of portfolio management.

The service is initially available only to Swiss clients, but broader geographic expansion is planned.

Sygnum raised more than 750 $BTC in January for its market-neutral Bitcoin ($BTC) fund, which posted an annualized return of 8.9% in the fourth quarter of 2025.

The Swiss crypto bank reached a post-money valuation of more than $1 billion after securing $58 million in an oversubscribed strategic growth round in January 2025.

Magazine: Clarity Act risks repeat of Europe’s mistakes, crypto lawyer warns

Michael Saylor, one of the most influential figures in the Bitcoin world, made striking statements about the potential impact of quantum computing on Bitcoin in his latest appearance on a television program.

Responding to concerns that quantum computers could break current encryption systems and leave the Bitcoin network vulnerable, Saylor urged investors to remain calm.

Saylor stated that there is a general consensus within the cybersecurity community that it will be at least 10 years before quantum computers pose a serious threat. Arguing that there is no concrete danger at the moment, the renowned businessman said, “Bitcoin has undergone nearly 30 software updates in its 17-year history. When a threat emerges, the network, nodes, wallets, and exchanges will all transition to ‘post-quantum resistant’ cryptography.”

Saylor, noting that the quantum threat will affect not only Bitcoin but also the global banking system, the internet, the defense industry, and giant technology companies, stated the following:

“If a quantum threat becomes real, Google, Microsoft, Apple, BlackRock, and even the US and Chinese governments will have to solve the same problem. The Bitcoin community is the most sophisticated cybersecurity-aware community in the world. While the legacy systems used by banks are far weaker, Bitcoin will be at the forefront of this process.”

Saylor likened quantum fear to the “Y2K” crisis that occurred at the start of the year 2000. He recalled that during that time, there was widespread panic about all computer systems collapsing and the world ending, but ultimately nothing happened. Saylor argued that such narratives are often fueled by “ambitious opportunists” to attract attention, gain power, or sell new products.

Saylor noted that Bitcoin has faced dozens of different fear scenarios (FUD) in the past, such as “bandwidth insufficiency,” “China banning mining,” or “environmental impacts,” but each proved unfounded. He characterized quantum fear as “the last refuge of those who want to stay relevant.” He gave Bitcoin followers this message: “If you spend your entire fortune on insurance policies (or bad investments) for a risk with a 1% probability, you’ll be bankrupt before that risk even happens. When quantum arrives, we’ll update our software like an iPhone update and move on.”

*This is not investment advice.

South Korea is preparing new regulations for financial influencers who give stock and cryptocurrency advice on social media. According to local media reports, Kim Seon-won, a member of the National Assembly from the Democratic Party of Korea, is working on a draft that would amend both the Capital Markets Law and the Virtual Asset User Protection Law.

The proposed regulation aims to impose mandatory disclosure obligations on “financial influencers” who recommend stock or cryptocurrency transactions on social media and similar platforms. According to the draft, individuals who regularly provide investment advice to an unspecified number of people or who earn income from this activity will be required to publicly disclose the fees they receive, as well as the types and amounts of their holdings in relevant financial products and crypto assets. The scope and technical details of the implementation will be clarified by a Presidential decree.

Under the new regulation, those who fail to comply with the obligations may face sanctions similar to those imposed for unfair trading practices in the capital market. These sanctions include penalties equivalent to those stipulated for violations such as market manipulation and front-running. The main aim of the bill is stated as increasing transparency in investment information, reducing conflicts of interest, and preventing investor losses resulting from information asymmetry.

According to official data, the number of applications for “investment advisory services” in South Korea increased from 132 in 2018 to 1,724 in 2024. This more than twelvefold increase in six years indicates the rapidly growing role of social media influence in financial markets. Regulators are drawing attention to the fact that some individuals operating outside the formal economy are profiting through misleading statements, false advertising, and even market manipulation.

Similar steps are being taken internationally. Regulatory bodies such as the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK and the SEC in the US have increased oversight and compliance requirements for social media accounts that produce financial content in recent years.

*This is not investment advice.

Bitcoin (BTC) rebounded to $69,000 after weeks of selling pressure. This was reflected in altcoins as well, with Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Cardano (ADA) experiencing double-digit gains.

However, analysts warn that caution is advised regarding the rise. According to them, the rally appears to be a technical bounce triggered by bearish positioning and low liquidity, rather than strong fundamental catalysts.

Speaking to Coindesk, LMAX Group analyst Joel Kruger said caution should be exercised regarding the sustainability of this recovery.

Kruger described the movement as a technical recovery in a low-liquidity environment.

At this point, Kruger noted that it was not yet accurate to characterize this recovery as the beginning of a sustained uptrend, and that it was too early to do so.

Joshua Lim, FalconX’s co-head of global markets, said that some funds have turned to volatile altcoins and options following the rally.

At this point, Jim noted that there was strong demand for bullish bets on Ethereum in the options market. Specifically, investors are aiming to profit from the short-term rise by purchasing call options in the $2,000-$2,200 range within the next two to three weeks.

Lastly, Wintermute OTC trader Jasper De Maere pointed to $75,000, noting that fundamental indicators do not suggest this rise will continue for long.

The analyst said that “the maximum pain point, $75,000, could act as a magnetic level towards the expiry date, but long positions appear weak.”

The analyst added that while the outlook for Bitcoin remains uncertain, sustained breaks above key resistance levels around $72,000 and $78,000 would signal a stronger structural uptrend.

*This is not investment advice.

Talk about winning the lottery. A solo miner walked away with over $200,000 in bitcoin while renting just $75 of hash power.

A solo miner validated block 938,092 around 8:04 a.m. UTC on Tuesday, earning the full 3.125 $BTC block reward using hashrate rented through on-demand cloud services, according to blockchain data from Mempool.space.

The miner spent roughly 119,000 satoshis, about $75, to rent 1 petahash per second of computing power and used CKPool, a service that lets individual miners work independently while relying on a pool server to broadcast and submit solutions.

The math on that return is absurd. It’s a 2,600x payoff on what amounts to a lottery ticket with better odds than most actual lotteries.

Bitcoin’s network processes transactions by bundling them into blocks, which are added to the blockchain roughly every 10 minutes. Miners compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle for the right to add each block, and the winner collects the reward.

The competition is measured in hashrate, the amount of computing power a miner throws at the puzzle. More hashrate means more guesses per second and better odds.

Statistically rare

A solo miner renting 1 petahash is like bringing a slingshot to a gunfight. The odds of that single petahash solving a block before the industrial operations do are vanishingly small, roughly equivalent to finding one specific grain of sand on a beach.

But someone has to win each block, and probability doesn’t care about scale. As such, while solo-mined blocks remain statistically rare, they’re not as rare as they used to be.

Data from solo mining aggregator Bennet shows 21 individual miners have successfully validated blocks over the past year, earning a combined 66 $BTC worth $4.1 million at current prices. That’s a 17% increase in solo blocks found year-over-year, with one landing roughly every 17 days on average.

The rise of on-demand hashrate rental has lowered the barrier to entry.

Miners no longer need to own physical hardware to take a shot. Cloud-based services let anyone rent computing power for as little as a few dollars, turning solo mining from an infrastructure-heavy operation into something closer to a scratch-off card with transparent odds.

Meanwhile, the lucky block landed during an interesting moment for bitcoin mining economics.

Network difficulty just climbed to 144.4 trillion after the latest adjustment, a 15% increase that reversed an 11% drop caused by severe U.S. winter storms earlier this month. The climb means miners now need on the order of 144.4 trillion hash attempts, on average, to find a valid block, compared with the very first blocks in 2009.

That storm-driven decline was the sharpest hashrate drop since China’s 2021 mining ban, temporarily making blocks easier to find before the network recalibrated.

And for one miner with $75 and good timing, the window was enough.