Santander offers cryptocurrency trading to Swiss clients

The Swiss-based private-banking arm of the Spanish bank Santander has opened the opportunity for 210,000 high-net-worth clients to trade and store Bitcoin and Ethereum. The news is reported by CoinDesk, citing internal documents.

Over the next several months, the platform will expand the list of available instruments to meet certain criteria.

The service is available on request.

The bank stores clients’ private keys in a secure environment under a regulated custodial model.

Holding cryptocurrencies as an alternative asset class continues to expand. We expect our clients to entrust their storage to the institution, said John Ullian, head of Santander’s digital assets division.

As reported in March 2023, amid the US banking crisis, Santander remained among those who did not withdraw from dealing with crypto companies.

In 2022, the institution’s Brazilian arm offered the digital asset trading service to local clients.

In March of the same year, Santander launched in Argentina a lending program for local farmers based on tokenized agricultural commodities.