Wall Street’s adoption of crypto ETFs has brought billions into Bitcoin and Ethereum, but Swiss-regulated digital asset bank Sygnum argues these funds weaken crypto’s core benefits.
Speaking with Decrypt at Consensus in Hong Kong on Wednesday, Max Stuedlein, head of strategic digital asset solutions at Sygnum Bank, argued that the “regular market hours” that crypto exchange-traded funds operate with for compliance have become a hindrance to unlocking the value of crypto.
In such use cases, investors are “just dragging along a lot of the negatives of traditional finance,” Stuedlein told Decrypt.
Stuedlein highlighted specific limitations: restricted trading hours, reduced liquidity, and the loss of crypto’s 24/7 accessibility—precisely the features attracting many investors to digital assets in the first place.
“When you wrap [Bitcoin] into something traditional like an ETF, you just destroy all of that interest,” Stuedlein said. In other words, packaging Bitcoin into an ETF format strips away key features that make crypto attractive in the first place—such as 24/7 trading, direct ownership, and decentralized access, according to Stuedlein.
Sygnum provides institutional and accredited investors with banking, trading, and asset management services for crypto. It was the world’s first digital asset bank licensed by Switzerland’s financial regulator, FINMA.
The bank sees a gro…
