Bitget moves institutional collateral to Sygnum’s off-exchange custody
The Swiss bank's Sygnum Protect platform now holds segregated, bankruptcy-remote collateral for Bitget's institutional clients, shifting counterparty risk off the exchange entirely.
Institutional crypto trading has a trust problem. Not trust in the technology, but trust in what happens to your collateral when it sits on an exchange’s balance sheet. Bitget and Sygnum Bank think they have an answer.
The two companies announced Thursday that Bitget’s institutional clients can now hold their trading collateral through Sygnum Protect, the Swiss digital-asset bank’s off-exchange custody platform. Collateral moves into segregated, bankruptcy-remote accounts governed by Swiss law, while Bitget mirrors the position for live trading purposes.
In practical terms: the assets never actually touch the exchange’s books. The exchange sees the collateral, can trade against it, but cannot commingle it with its own funds or creditors’ claims.
Why this matters more than it sounds
When FTX collapsed in 2022, customer assets that sat on the exchange’s balance sheet became creditor claims overnight. Clients waited in line with everyone else.
Off-exchange custody sidesteps that entire scenario. Assets held in legally ring-fenced accounts under a regulated Swiss bank are structurally insulated from exchange insolvency, which is a very different risk profile than a standard exchange deposit.
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Bitget CEO Gracy Chen framed it plainly, saying institutional clients now expect off-exchange custody as a baseline condition for participation, not a premium feature.
“The expectation for off-exchange custody is becoming central to institutional adoption in the cryptocurrency sector.” — Gracy Chen, CEO, Bitget
Sygnum Protect accepts Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, and yield-bearing US Treasuries as collateral. Treasuries earn yield while sitting idle, which means institutions using them as collateral are not just parking capital, they are earning a return on it. The operational cost of holding collateral effectively gets offset by the yield, a feature that no non-bank custody platform can easily replicate.
Sygnum Protect’s rapid rise
Sygnum launched the Protect platform in April 2024. By the end of 2025, assets under custody had grown more than 900%, crossing $1 billion and making it the largest bank-operated off-exchange custody platform in the market.
Bitget joins a roster that already includes Binance, Deribit, and Bybit. Combined, the exchanges integrated with Sygnum Protect represent more than half of global spot and derivatives trading volumes.
What the shift signals for institutional crypto
Bitget operates across more than 150 countries and counts over 125 million users on its platform. Off-exchange custody is increasingly how the institutional bar gets cleared. The model works like a brokerage prime service: the custodian holds assets, the exchange gets a mirror of the position, and trading happens as normal. The client retains legal ownership throughout, which is the key difference from a conventional exchange deposit where the exchange holds the asset and the client holds a contractual claim.