Sygnum Bank launches market-neutral Bitcoin fund and collects over 750 BTC
- The Swiss crypto bank Sygnum has sent a strong signal to the institutional market in a very short time with its BTC Alpha Fund.
- In just four months since its launch in October, over 750 Bitcoin flowed into the fund from professional and institutional investors.
Die Sygnum Bank expects an annual return of eight to ten percent in BTC and relies on market-neutral arbitrage strategies that are intended to generate ROI regardless of the BTC spot price.
The fund was founded jointly with Starboard Digital Strategies and is explicitly aimed at professional and qualified investors in regulated markets such as Switzerland and Singapore. The BTC Alpha Fund is domiciled in the Cayman Islands, a common location for alternative investment instruments with an international investor base.
Market Neutral Bitcoin Strategy
The fund’s rapid capital formation and initial performance underline a clear trend: Institutional investors are increasingly looking for Bitcoin strategies that not only rely on price increases, but also generate ongoing income.
Markus Hämmerli is Head of Portfolio Management and responsible for the BTC Alpha Fund Offering at Sygnum. He comments:
“As Bitcoin increasingly becomes a core allocation for institutional investors, we see growing demand for strategies that can generate returns beyond simple price gains. The fund’s fourth quarter performance shows that professional Bitcoin management can deliver substantial results even when spot markets are flat or falling.”
The BTC Alpha Fund follows a market-neutral approach: Instead of speculating on rising or falling prices, the strategy exploits price differences and inefficiencies between different markets and instruments. The focus is on arbitrage approaches between spot and derivatives markets, which are intended to systematically record price differences and convert them into income.
BTC return independent of spot price
Specifically, the strategy aims to capture price dislocations across major crypto markets by exploiting arbitrage opportunities between spot and derivative instruments. At the same time, the aim is to achieve market-neutral exposure, which is intended to limit the dependence on daily Bitcoin price fluctuations. This means: The fund attempts to largely neutralize the pure market risk of Bitcoin and instead focus on structural inefficiencies and spread opportunities.
The BTC Alpha Fund comes with monthly liquidity and follows a disciplined risk management framework tailored to professional and institutional investors.
The goal: to offer high-quality return opportunities within an institutional structure – including clear governance, regulated service providers and custody of assets outside of stock exchanges.
The custody and structuring of the fund are based on institutional standards: Sygnum has positioned itself as a regulated crypto bank for years with a focus on professional investors and combines banking licenses, crypto expertise and asset management offerings.
A special feature of the fund is its integration with Sygnum’s other banking services. Fund shares are permitted as collateral for USD Lombard loans for selected customers.
This allows investors to access liquidity for other investment opportunities without having to sell their positions in the fund – a common dilemma for long-term Bitcoin holders who do not want to reduce their exposure but still need capital.
This functionality strengthens the role of Bitcoin and Bitcoin-based products as collateralizable assets in an institutional context. At the same time, it shows how the financialization of Bitcoin is continuing to deepen: BTC and BTC-based fund shares are increasingly being integrated into classic credit and collateral logic.
Fund screams as “Proof-of-Concept”
Nikolas Skarlatos from Starboard Digital says:
“Generating a return on Bitcoin while maintaining exposure to its upside potential has been an ongoing challenge for institutional investors.
The fund’s early results confirm institutional-grade Bitcoin yield strategies and target returns of 8-10% per year across a range of market conditions.”
The fund thus solves a central problem for many institutional Bitcoin investors: either they hold BTC passively and are completely dependent on price developments, or they take on additional risks, for example through lending, unregulated platforms or complex derivatives.
The launch of the BTC Alpha Fund fits into a broader trend. Current industry data shows that a majority of institutional investors have already invested in Bitcoin ETPs and will do so soon. At the same time, there is growing demand for professionally managed, return-generating strategies that are based on Bitcoin but do not depend exclusively on the price.
The BTC Alpha Fund from Sygnum and Starboard Digital is therefore more than just another crypto product: It exemplifies the next phase of institutional Bitcoin adoption – away from price bets and towards structured, market-neutral and yield-oriented strategies that fit perfectly into existing portfolio and risk management frameworks.
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