Julius Baer Deepens into Crypto with Storage, Investment Offerings

Private bank Julius Baer announced on Tuesday the extended offering of digital asset-based services to its Swiss-based clients.

The bank will provide access to various solutions for digital asset storage and transactions to meet increasing demand from its client base. It will also offer consolidated portfolio overviews across both conventional and digital assets.

The services, however, will be limited to a selected group of digital currencies which have been chosen based on their tradability, safety, and technical reliability.

The services will be offered via the multinational lender’s partner Seba, a crypto-focused bank in Switzerland.

Switzerland - at the forefront of crypto adoption

SEBA gained a banking and securities dealers’ license from the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) in August to legally offer digital asset-based investment instruments to institutional clients. Along with Sygnum, it became the first such crypto company to receive a license from the Swiss regulator.

Julius Bear and Seba joined hands last February before the crypto bank obtained banking license. With this partnership, the banking giant was already considering to offer digital asset-based services to its clients.

With hostility among mainstream banks towards digital asset businesses, the demand for crypto-focused banks skyrocketed in every market.

Seba has also launched its services last year to both professional clients and crypto businesses. Along with normal banking services, it will also provide services to tokenize investment products, real assets, and rights.

The crypto bank is also well strapped as its CEO last year revealed that it raised CHF 100 million (around $96 million) since the first 18 months of its establishment. Meanwhile, the bank is again looking to raise another $96 million in a second-stage fundraising round from financial institutions, family offices, and affluent individuals.