Anyone who builds a business model on digital assets was put to the test in 2025. After the exceptional year 2024, with its Blackrock Bitcoin ETF euphoria, prices turned: Bitcoin ended the year at around 69,600 francs (roughly $87,000) – 19 percent below its level twelve months earlier – while Ethereum shed as much as 24 percent.
Add to that falling interest rates, a dollar depreciating sharply against the franc, and, in October, a liquidation shock that rattled global digital asset markets. In short: every revenue source of any crypto bank – trading, custody, interest income – was under unfavorable conditions at the same time.
A Genuine Stress Test
It was thus the first real stress year since Sygnum and Amina launched in 2019 as the world's first regulated crypto banks.
Which of the two business models weathered the storm better?
