Zürcher Kantonalbank
Zürcher Kantonalbank is the cantonal bank of Zurich, an independent public-law institution of the canton with a state guarantee and an AAA rating. Since 4 September 2024 its clients in Switzerland can buy and sell cryptocurrencies around the clock in ZKB eBanking and the ZKB Mobile Banking app, and the bank books them in the same custody account as their shares and bonds.
The bank started with bitcoin and ether and now also offers Solana and Chainlink. It holds the private keys itself, so clients need no wallet of their own, and it routes the orders through Crypto Finance AG, a company of the Deutsche Börse Group. Other Swiss banks can offer the same service to their clients through a business-to-business solution of the bank.
ZKB crypto: bitcoin, ether, solana and chainlink
Clients of Zürcher Kantonalbank trade four cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and Chainlink. Orders placed in eBanking or the mobile app run at any hour on any day, and orders by phone or another channel follow the general trading hours of the bank. Every purchase settles in US dollars, so the bank converts orders placed in Swiss francs or another currency.
When the service started in September 2024, bitcoin made up most of the trading volume. The bank sees room for further coins and for services such as staking, and it expects tokenization to spread across the whole securities business.
How to buy crypto at the ZKB
Only clients domiciled in Switzerland can trade, and US persons are excluded from the offer. A client needs a ZKB custody account with a valid execution-only contract and must sign the agreement on trading and custody of cryptocurrencies, together with its risk disclosure. The bank gives no advice on these trades, and its advisory and asset management mandates cannot hold cryptocurrencies.
Wallet and custody of the coins
Zürcher Kantonalbank runs the crypto custody itself on the infrastructure of selected IT partners and keeps the private keys for its clients. Clients therefore open no wallet and cannot lose a key, and their coins appear in the portfolio overview next to all other positions. For now clients cannot transfer coins into the bank or have them delivered to an external wallet, and they cannot use them for payments.
Upcoming crypto and digital asset events in Switzerland
Crypto fees at the ZKB
For orders in eBanking or the app, the ZKB charges a commission of 1.00 percent up to CHF 250,000 and 0.75 percent above that, with a minimum of CHF 10. Orders through other channels cost 2.00 or 1.75 percent, with a minimum of CHF 20. The custody fee for cryptocurrencies is 0.50 percent a year, at least CHF 5 a month.
Crypto trading for other Swiss banks
Through its business-to-business solution, the ZKB lets other Swiss banks offer crypto trading and custody to their own clients. These banks send crypto orders over the same connection that they already use for shares, bonds and funds. Thurgauer Kantonalbank was the first partner bank in September 2024, and Crypto Finance executes the trades.
Digital bonds and central bank money
Zürcher Kantonalbank is a participant of the SIX Digital Exchange and took part in its first digital bond issue in 2021 and its first digital share issue. In December 2023 the bank was joint lead manager in Helvetia Phase III of the Swiss National Bank and settled the first syndicated Swiss franc bond against wholesale central bank money, and further transactions of this kind have followed.
Address, figures and management
Zürcher Kantonalbank has its head office at Bahnhofstrasse 9, 8010 Zurich, and Urs Baumann is its CEO. The Swiss financial market supervisor FINMA supervises the bank under the Banking Act. In the first half of 2026 the bank earned a group profit after taxes of CHF 679 million, and client assets rose to CHF 610.8 billion with net new money of CHF 10.5 billion.
Zürcher Kantonalbank and Finance Loop
Banks, asset managers and fintechs in the Finance Loop network deal with the services that Zürcher Kantonalbank provides, from crypto trading for retail clients to digital bonds settled in central bank money. Finance Loop discusses these services in the Investment & Digital Assets track and the rules behind them in the Risk & Compliance track.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.